Naming rights

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Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typically for an agreed time. The term typically ranges from three to 20 years for properties such as multi-purpose arenas, performing arts venues, or sports fields. Longer terms are more common for higher profile venues such as professional sports facilities.^[1]

This arrangement gives buyers a marketing property to promote products and services, enhance customer retention, or increase market share.

There are several forms of corporate sponsored names. For example, a presenting sponsor attaches the name of the corporation or brand into a traditional name (e.g. Mall of America Field at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome and Smart Araneta Coliseum); a title sponsor replaces the property's original name with a corporate-sponsored name (as with most sponsored sports venues), without referencing the previous name.

The record for the largest naming rights payment belongs to the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. On 17 November 2021, a 20-year, US$ 700 million sponsorship deal was reached between Anschutz Entertainment Group and Singapore-based Crypto.com to rename the Staples Center.^[2] The Staples office supply store chain had held the arena's naming rights since the venue's opening in 1999. The center is home to NHL's Los Angeles Kings and the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers. The venue became known as Crypto.com Arena on December 25, 2021.

The record had previously belonged to Toronto's Scotiabank Arena (formerly the Air Canada Centre), which garnered CA$ 800 million (US$ 517 million) over 20 years starting in 2018.^[3][4]

The former New Meadowlands Stadium, home of the New York Giants and New York Jets in East Rutherford, New Jersey, was expected to eclipse both deals with an estimated value of US$ 25–30 million annually.^[5] It fell short of that benchmark, with MetLife Stadium earning $17 million annually from its deal with insurance company MetLife.^[6]

Occasionally, the purchaser of naming rights may choose to donate the rights to an outside organization, typically one to which it is closely related. A notable example is Friends Arena, a major stadium in Stockholm. The facility was previously Swedbank Arena, but in 2012 the company donated the naming rights to the Friends Foundation, an organization sponsored by Swedbank combatting school bullying.^[7] Similarly, in 2018, the Kentucky Farm Bureau, a farmer lobbying and insurance organization, acquired naming rights to the University of Kentucky's new baseball park. The Farm Bureau donated those naming rights to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture which named the venue Kentucky Proud Park. The sponsored name is the state agency's brand for agricultural products produced in that state.^[8]