Sun Life Financial Joins Naming Rights Club (and other random facts about naming rights)
An American division of Sun Life Financial Inc., a Canadian insurance company, became the latest corporation to adorn its name on the Miami football and baseball stadium after agreeing to a five-year, $20 million contract with the Miami Dolphins. The stadium, which will host this year’s NFL Pro Bowl and Super Bowl, will be known as Sun Life Stadium, after previously being known as Joe Robbie Stadium (1987-1996), Pro Player Park (1996), Pro Player Stadium (1996-2005), Dolphins Stadium (2005-2006), Dolphin Stadium (2006-2009) and Land Shark Stadium (2009-2010).
Despite numerous troubles throughout the financial industry, Sun Life already has plenty of company from other insurance or banking entities with their names on arenas, stadiums and ballparks. In the NFL alone there are six teams that use stadiums with financial or insurance companies’ names on them:
Denver Broncos – INVESCO Field at Mile High
Carolina Panthers – Bank of America Stadium
Baltimore Ravens – M&T Bank Stadium
Philadelphia Eagles – Lincoln Financial Field
St. Louis Rams – Edward Jones Dome
Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Raymond James Stadium
Major League Baseball is actually ahead of the NFL, with seven different teams having financial companies’ names on their ballparks, not counting the Florida Marlins, who plays in the aforementioned Sun Life Stadium:
Arizona Diamondbacks – Chase Field
Cleveland Indians – Progressive Field
Detroit Tigers – Comerica Park
New York Mets – Citi Field
Philadelphia Phillies – Citizens Bank Park
Pittsburgh Pirates – PNC Park
Seattle Mariners – Safeco Field
And for context’s sake, only four NBA teams call their home court using a financial name:
Boston Celtics – TD Garden (formerly TD Banknorth Garden)
Philadelphia 76ers – Wachovia Center
Cleveland Cavaliers – Quicken Loans Arena
Indiana Pacers – Conseco Fieldhouse
I never really noticed until today that Philadelphia has three financial companies sponsoring their sports complex, which is slightly silly since all three structures are right next to each other. Add the fact that the Wachovia Center used to be the PNC SomethingOrOther and the place is just riddled with bankers.
Some other random naming rights facts:
The NBA has five arenas named for airlines:
Air Canada Centre – Toronto Raptors
United Center – Chicago Bulls
American Airlines Arena – Miami Heat
US Airways Arena – Phoenix Suns
American Airlines Center – Dallas Mavericks
Why is this interesting? Because no NFL stadium or MLB ballpark has the name of an airline on it.
There are plenty of places named for drinks, but none in the NFL:
Coors Field – Colorado Rockies (MLB)
Minute Maid Park – Houston Astros (MLB)
Miller Park – Milwaukee Brewers (MLB)
Busch Stadium – St. Louis Cardinals (MLB)
Tropicana Field – Tampa Bay Rays (MLB)
Pepsi Center – Denver Nuggets (NBA)
And finally, technology companies are all over the place in all three sports:
Philips Arena – Atlanta Hawks (NBA)
Time Warner Cable Arena – Charlotte Bobcats (NBA)
Verizon Center – Washington Wizards (NBA)
Oracle Arena – Golden State Warriors (NBA)
AT&T Center – San Antonio Spurs (NBA)
U.S. Cellular Field – Chicago White Sox (MLB)
AT&T Park – San Francisco Giants (MLB)
Rogers Centre – Toronto Blue Jays (MLB)
Qualcomm Stadium – San Diego Chargers (NFL)
LP Field – Tennessee Titans (NFL)
Qwest Field – Seattle Seahawks (NFL)
I could do this all day, but I’ll stop for now.
Fun post. LP, however, is not a technology company. Unless you consider home-building materials technological.
Thanks for the correction. I was thinking of LG and never thought twice.
Good post. Interesting read. One thing – I’m using Google Chrome and I had a few problems posting comments. I know Chrome isn’t hugely popular but you might want to check it out.