Friday, July 07, 2000
Reds will sell more than ballpark name
Club to officially name Great American Ball Park today
By Cliff Peale
The Cincinnati Enquirer
By the time Great American Ball Park opens in 2003, expect corporate names on everything from the scoreboard to the entrance ways.
While the small-market Cincinnati Reds are getting a respectable $2.5 million a year for putting Great American Insurance Co.'s name on the ballpark, they will cut plenty of other deals before the park opens, sports business experts said.
Team owner Carl Lindner, who also controls Great American, and other Reds officials hope the series of naming rights and sponsorships will secure the Reds' finances for a generation to come.
“That's definitely a good number for a market the size of Cincinnati,” said Matthew Freedman, editor of Team Marketing Report, a sports business publication in Chicago.
At a news conference at Cinergy Field today, the Reds will formally announce that Great American has agreed to pay about $75 million over 30 years for the naming rights. The deal also includes a series of advertising and promotional moves.
For Great American, which op erates around the country, the deal will offer a consistent brand identity. And for Reds fans, it gives the team a chance to increase its payroll and potentially compete for free agents it hasn't touched during the low-budget years of the late 1990s.
“This is probably a sweetheart deal, but there's nothing wrong with that,” said Kevin Grace, an archivist at the University of Cincinnati who studies baseball history.
“Other markets will support bigger deals, but this seems to be a good deal for everybody.”
The Reds have estimated they could add more than $25 million a year in new revenue from the ballpark. Other sources include as much as $5 million annually from luxury boxes.
Myles Gallagher of The Superlative Group in Cleveland, the company that negotiated the deal for the Reds, said Mr. Lindner personally decided not to sell permanent seat licenses for the new ballpark.
The licenses charge customers thousands of dollars for the permanent right to buy a ticket. Many teams, including the Cincinnati Bengals, have used them to finance the construction of new stadiums.
“We've been involved in a lot of negotiations,” Mr. Gallagher said. “If ever there was a win-win, this was it.”
“Great American Ball Park. People are going to check that out,” he added. “It's a smart move.”
Mitchell Ziets, a principal at the sports industry group at Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc., said the naming-rights deal can be judged only after all the other deals have been cut.
For example, nearly every naming rights deal includes other marketing spots, which might give Great American Insurance prime ad spots on Reds' broadcasts or Internet advertising rights.
Most observers said they liked the Great American name on the ballpark. The Reds hope to use it to evoke images of the “Great American game” and attract families to the team's games.
“The name fits perfectly with what Cincinnati would like to think about its role in baseball history,” Mr. Grace said. “Nationwide, it's a much better image to convey for baseball than an obvious corporate name.”
Reds Stories
• Return to Reds front page...
Reds will sell more than ballpark name
