Naming Rights

The Phillies will begin making money from their new ballpark even before the first bucket of popcorn or designer beer is sold. During negotiations over financing with the city and the state, the team insisted on having control over the ballpark's naming rights. The Phillies could sell those rights for a record sum of money, an expert in the field of corporate stadium sponsorship said yesterday. "The Phillies have a good shot of breaking the record for a baseball stadium," said Mike Reisman, principal of Velocity Sports Entertainment.

Yesterday, the nature of big business caught up with the sports-arena naming-rights game with the takeover of CoreStates Bank by First Union Bank. That probably will result in a change of address for the Flyers and Sixers. According to Peter Luukko, president of the CoreStates Complex, which includes the new CoreStates Center and the old CoreStates Spectrum, the contract between CoreStates and Comcast-Spectacor has a "succession clause" that allows for a change in the names of the two buildings.

In the coming weeks, the Phillies will do something that is commonplace now but was unheard of the last time they moved into a new stadium. They will sell the naming rights to the place. The buyer may be Citizens Bank, as has been rumored, or some other firm. The price figures to be in the range of $3 million per year for 20 years, those familiar with the business say. Such deals, at the right price and with the right match, work for both parties. The team gets a vital and reliable revenue stream.

The developer of the Penn's Landing entertainment center is close to signing a $10 million naming-rights agreement with Philadelphia cable company Comcast Corp., according to the president of the Penn's Landing Corp. If this deal, which has not been finalized, goes ahead, it would be a significant step toward closing the funding gap that the project's developer says has contributed to the delay in starting construction on the Center City waterfront site. Melvin Simon, the nation's largest shopping-center developer, has been trying to recruit additional investors and sign a naming-rights deal with Comcast for the last year.

By next year, the word citizens is going to be heard around Philadelphia as often as it was in Paris during the French Revolution. In what is your typical naming-rights deal, Citizens Bank has agreed to pay the Philadelphia Phillies $57.5 million to slap its name on the team's new ballpark in South Philadelphia for the next 25 years. At $2.3 million a year, the Phils' deal is in the middle ranks of naming rights revenue for Major League Baseball. The Eagles got $139.6 million to christen their costlier new home Lincoln Financial Field - but football deals tend to be more lucrative.

The Flyers have played their last game in the First Union Center. And pretty soon, the Sixers will play theirs, too. No, the teams aren't going anywhere, and neither is the arena. Only the name will change. In a few months, the building that opened as the CoreStates Center in 1996 will be rechristened the Wachovia Center, its third name in seven years. Such are the perils of the naming-rights game. Names of businesses change, and sports facilities must follow. Even when companies don't go down the tubes, they get bought up, merge, and establish new identities.

There are no cars for sale at General Motors Place. There are no flights out of the Delta Center or the Trans World Dome. While you can get a beer at Coors Field, it's not brewed inside. And banking isn't the main business at the Core-States Center. What goes on inside these places are baseball, basketball, football or hockey games. And the names have nothing to do with sports and everything to do with corporate advertising. In the team owners' ever-expanding quest for revenue sources, naming rights to arenas and stadiums have become as much a part of the game as luxury boxes and television contracts.

With only two weeks left to try and craft stadium deals, sources say Mayor Street's stadium negotiating team is increasingly pessimistic about ever finding the $225 million extra his chosen Center City site will cost. Before he can even get to issues like Chinatown opposition and relocating residents, Street has to negotiate a business deal with skeptical sports teams, which think they gave all they could in the proposed deal they cut with then-Mayor Rendell last year. "You already have a deal that doesn't work," lawyer David L. Cohen, who is representing the Phillies, said when Street announced the new site at 12th and Vine streets.

The Atlantic City Surf have a new name for their diamond, courtesy of a local jeweler. The Surf announced yesterday that Sandcastle Stadium now will be known as Bernie Robbins Stadium. Surf president and CEO Mark Schuster said the deal with Bernie Robbins Fine Jewelry is a critical piece of the Surf's economic future in Atlantic City. "We have found a first-class naming-rights partner who has invested time and money in the Atlantic City and South Jersey communities," said Schuster, adding that the agreement has been approved by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.

Lincoln Financial Field. Get used to it. Say it out loud. It will be the name of the Eagles' new stadium in South Philadelphia, thanks to a 20-year deal between the team and Lincoln Financial Group. The financial services company, which has its corporate headquarters in Center City, will pay $139.6 million to the Eagles for the right to name the new stadium, scheduled to open next summer. Jon A. Boscia, the Pittsburgh-born CEO of Lincoln Financial Group, confirmed the particulars of the deal.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The birthplace of college football will get $6.5 million over the next 10 years to put a new name on its football stadium. Rutgers University announced Tuesday that its 54,454-seat stadium would be known as High Point Solutions Stadium. Athletic director Tim Pernetti said the money paid by a Sussex County information technology company will go to the football program so it can stay competitive at the highest level. "The bottom line is, the football program has given us the opportunity to generate these additional dollars," Pernetti said of the team that has gone to bowl games five of the last six years, this past season being the exception.

BEDMINSTER, N.J. - Rutgers University's football stadium is getting a new name. According to a source familiar with the negotiations, Rutgers has reached a deal with High Point Solutions for naming rights. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the university's athletic department has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday to announce the partnership. High Point is based in Sparta and supplies companies with information-technology hardware and support. The stadium announcement comes nearly a year after the university hired Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment and IMG College to act as agents in making a deal for naming rights.

Rutgers is looking to sell the naming rights to its football stadium and basketball arena. The university announced Wednesday that it has hired Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment and IMG College to act as agents in making a deal. The football stadium in Piscataway has long been called Rutgers Stadium. The nearby basketball arena is known as the Louis Brown Athletic Center, but is more popularly known as the Rutgers Athletic Center. The company that owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut recently signed a 10-year, $13.5 million contract to put its name on a new basketball arena in Louisville, where Rick Pitino's Cardinals play.

WHAT'S IN A NAME? If you're SEPTA, about $3 million. That's what the transit authority will net from a $5 million deal to change the name of the subway station at Broad and Pattison to "AT&T Station. " If SEPTA approves the deal on Thursday, Pattison Station will be a memory by August. What's also in this name is an irresistible urge to offer other branding possibilities: How about renaming the City Hall for Ballard Spahr, the law firm of choice for so much public work? The Independence Hall stop on the Market-Frankford Line would be a perfect placement for Liberty Mutual or US Airways.

AT&T may soon be on the line - the Broad Street Line. Cash-strapped SEPTA is considering a proposal to sell the naming rights to the southernmost subway stop. AT&T has offered $5 million to change the name of the Pattison station, which serves the Sports Complex in South Philadelphia. What's next, City Hall? (No Fumo jokes, please.) "Most likely not," SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said of the City Hall station. "But we would certainly entertain ideas on renaming other stations.

As is known to every motorist who ever wondered, "Who the heck is John Fenwick?", the New Jersey Turnpike's rest areas are named after historic figures with some connection to the state. Gov. Christie's transportation commissioner recently suggested renaming them after corporations that give some money to the state. This has caused an uproar. Could the Woodrow Wilson Service Area one day become the Wilson Sporting Goods Service Area? Is nothing sacred - not even convenience stores and gas stations?

The Philadelphia Union and PPL EnergyPlus made their marriage official today, announcing a 10-year agreement to call the soccer team's new stadium PPL Park. "We have found the perfect partner," Nick Sakiewicz, the Union's chief executive officer, said in a statement. "We are so energized over this partnership and can't wait to start working together to make our mark in the community. " PPL EnergyPlus will be the Union's exclusive energy provider. It is paying nearly $20 million to emblazon the PPL name on and around the 18,500-seat stadium, now being built on the Chester waterfront.

The Atlantic City Surf have a new name for their diamond, courtesy of a local jeweler. The Surf announced yesterday that Sandcastle Stadium now will be known as Bernie Robbins Stadium. Surf president and CEO Mark Schuster said the deal with Bernie Robbins Fine Jewelry is a critical piece of the Surf's economic future in Atlantic City. "We have found a first-class naming-rights partner who has invested time and money in the Atlantic City and South Jersey communities," said Schuster, adding that the agreement has been approved by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.

More than a year ago, the Philadelphia School District announced it would sell naming rights to the $62 million high school it's building with Microsoft Corp. So far, nobody's biting. Not even a nibble. Only two groups have bought naming rights to two sections of the school. Microsoft will pay $100,000 to name the visitors center, and the city Water Department will contribute $300,000 to sponsor the environmentally sensitive "green roof. " The district hopes to raise nearly $14 million in naming-rights fees before the building opens next school year, selling the rights to name features including individual classrooms, the fitness center, and the arts studio.

WE HAVE a name for the idea of selling naming rights to the Pennsylvania Convention Center. And it's not a very nice one. Earlier this week, Mayor Street floated the idea as a way to make up the shortfall of arts-and-culture funding. He suggested that maybe as much as $5 million a year for the arts could be generated from selling the naming rights to a corporation. Our first instinct on hearing this was to think of all the funny, ironic or cutting names that we could come up with.