Stadium

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.

When PPL Park was being built, Philadelphia Union fans imagined what it could become: a grand soccer locus that routinely hosted large crowds. That came to be. Now fans may need to envision the year-old stadium in a new way: bigger. Union officials are developing long-term plans to expand the arena, contemplating a three-phase process, the first to increase seating from 18,500 to 20,000. If all goes well, that construction could start in 2014, according to team chief executive officer Nick Sakiewicz.

The owners of the Minnesota Vikings said yesterday that the team's future is in the suburbs, announcing a deal with Ramsey County to collaborate on a $1.1 billion, retractable-roof stadium in Arden Hills, about 10 miles north of their current home at the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. The deal appeared to end the debate over the where to put a new stadium, at least from the team's perspective. But how to fund the facility remains a major question. The plan calls for a new stadium at the site of a former Army ammunitions plant.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said Friday he met with Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf on Thursday to discuss state funding of a new football stadium and that he hoped a site would be picked soon as the list of possibilities narrowed to two. The proposed state share would be $300 million. One of the sites would be a former Army ammunition plant in suburban Arden Hills, in Ramsey County about 10 miles north of St. Paul. "We're very close to a deal," said County Commissioner Rafael Ortega.

The former Holy Family University basketball player at the center of the shoving that led to the resignation of the team's coach has been arrested on a charge of stealing drinks at Citizens Bank Park. Police said Matt Kravchuk, 19, reached around the back of a concession stand and took two bottles during Wednesday night's Phillies-Mets game and tried to conceal them when confronted. Police did not reveal what the bottles contained but said their cost totaled $15. Kravchuk was taken to South Detectives and charged with retail theft.

Police believe many fans witnessed the beating of a San Francisco Giants fan that left him critically injured after the Opening Day game at Dodger Stadium and they're asking for their help in identifying the attackers. Two men in Dodgers clothing followed three men in Giants gear as they walked to their car after Thursday night's 2-1 Dodgers victory, Sgt. Sanford Rosenberg said. He said the men yelled slurs against the Giants and began kicking and punching the men, causing one victim to suffer a head injury.

MINNEAPOLIS - Call it ironic. Incredible. Or idiotic. You make the call. Country superstar Kenny Chesney scored a career-defining hit last year with "The Boys of Fall," a sentimental ode to high-school football. Not only was it a No. 1 country single but it had a video clip starring Peyton Manning, Joe Namath and other football greats as well as a Chesney-produced HBO documentary featuring even more gridiron heroes. Now that he's hit the road again, pro football players can't see him perform at NFL stadiums because of their contract deadlock with league owners.

For five months, a proposal to build a $40 million minor-league baseball stadium in West Chester generated a spirited mix of excitement, skepticism, and opposition. Ultimately, the game plan failed to impress the West Chester Borough Council, which voted, 7-0, Wednesday night to authorize its Redevelopment Authority to explore other options for the 28-acre brownfield in the southeastern part of the borough. The vote followed a report Tuesday from the authority, which projected an annual net loss to the stadium owner of $92,800.

Sometimes sports is like one of those 3-D paintings that were so popular in the '90s. The closer you get, the fuzzier it looks. This past week, amid the Chicken Little coverage of winter weather, these three sports-related developments raised plenty of questions: 1. Bernie Madoff influenced the Mets' financial decisions.   There's always plenty of puzzlement surrounding the Mets. Who does Jose Reyes' hair? How'd they end up with a triple-A rotation? And will new manager Terry Collins have to stand on a box at news conferences?