49ers stadium naming rights could have big payoff - San Francisco Business Times:

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Naming rights present a potentially lucrative source of revenuee fora team, with multiyear, multimillion-dollatr deals struck between teams and companiews seeking to get their namea on buildings, in the mouths of broadcast announcers and in frong of millions of fans a year. But a deal that a few yearsa back might have been a source of pridse for a business now may be a sourceof Citigroup, for example, is facin g intense criticism for spending $400 million on a stadium deal with the New York Mets while accepting billions in bailout dollarss from the federal government.
“Naming rights transactionsx are more difficult to come by than they were prior tothe recession,” said Lew co-owner of the Oakland Athletics and ownerr of the San Jose Earthquakes. “I believe that’s going to be true not only for the curreng market but forthe future, for a long The 49ers, he said, will probabl y look for a strong national name to placr on its facility. But many companies that were strong naminv partners in the past are in the financiao services andinsurance industries, and they will be less likely to spend what some view as unnecessar marketing dollars going In Oakland, McAfee Inc.
allowed its 10-year agreement for naminf rights onthe Oakland-Alamedq County Coliseum to expire, whiler Oracle Corp. in 2006 struck a $3 million per 10-year deal for naming rights on the indooeOakland arena. Wolff said the Earthquakes organization is workinhg with the William Morrix Agency on naming andbrandingy issues. Amway Global in January strucka three-year agreement with the team to have its name placerd on team uniforms. Terms of that deal were not “The 49er brand is outstanding, and if there’z any brand someone might want toseek out, it’sw them,” Wolff said. “But every deal is different.
” When the San Jose Sportxs Authority and the city were in the process of striking a deal to brand the home of the San Jose it was nearly Compaq Computers which at the time was a Houston company wantiny to build up its SiliconValley presence. Malcolmn Bordelon, executive vice president of businesd operations for the SanJose Sharks, said the day the signager was to go up, Compaq called and said it had been acquiredr by Hewlett-Packard Co.
HP, he did extensive research before going forward with thenaminbg deal, figuring out how many times its name woul be said publicly and how its brand would be featured in the “We also researched naming deals, and what we founc is that it’s all over the map unbelievably varied,” Bordelon said. “I’m not sure how to personif the process the 49ers will face other thansayin it’s going to be very challenging.” In additioj to Sharks games, the venue hostds concerts and other sporting events each year.
While naminfg rights at HP Pavilion fell under the purview of the city becauss the facility ispubliclg owned, Santa Clara Assistant City Manager Ron Garrat said the naming rightss deal for the 49ers wouls fall exclusively with the “We tried to get the Santa Clarw 49ers on the front end of the and they weren’t willing to do that, understandably,” Garraty said. If it comes time for the 49ersw to seek out anaminfg partner, they would probably enlist the help of a third-party expert, a sportss marketing dealmaker that can tell them what the team’ss brand is worth.
Some of the top sports marketiny dealmakers areIMG World, which has offices aroundx the country, and 16W Marketing of New A third well-known firm, Bonhamn Group of Denver, shut down in January afterf its primary banker reduced its credit Deals Bonham negotiated includex San Diego Padres’ Petco Park and the Seattles Seahawks’ Qwest Field. David Peart, the vice president of business partnerships for thePittsburgh Penguins, was until last June the vice presiden t of sales and marketing for the 49ers. He said “youi want to make sure you measure twice” befored assigning value to a namingrights deal. “s company will be looking at what its primary entitlementwill be.
From signage, integrationn of your products intothe building, where you fit into the architectural design of the building,” Peart said. “Once the shovelsz hit the ground, you want the namingy partner in place.” The team will face an uphil battle in the name game becausd naming rights as a marketing tool have fallen out of Two properties shopping for a name now are the New York Giantss stadium and the DallasCowboys stadium, both of whicgh Peart said are “super high profile” but are having troublse finding a name.
“A pure branx play is really difficult in this day and age for a compan to justify to its shareholders and stakeholder sand employees,” Peart said. “When you’re thinkint about laying off people andsaying you’re gointg to spend $5 million a year for 30 years to put your name on a it’s a tough row to hoe.”