Sports

(WCCO) For at least one year, there will be two Minneapolis sporting venues sporting the name "Target."

In 1990, the Target Center became the home for the Minnesota Timberwolves. In 2010, Target Field will be the home for the Minnesota Twins. Buying naming rights costs tens of millions of dollars. Is it worth the money?

"That's the million dollar question," said Steve Ross, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sport Management at the University of Minnesota.

"It's about national brand name recognition. Think about how many games over a period of a year," he said. "That's 80 to 81 news stories that mention Target. That name's going to be in the paper, in the news, every [live game] broadcast, us talking here."

"A stadium naming deal almost automatically makes you stand out," said John T. Wendt, a professor in the Ethics and Business Law Department at the University of St. Thomas. "Every ticket, program, banner and sign for all events held in the stadium will generally have the sponsor's name on it."

According to the Sporting News, the money being spent on naming rights is at record levels. Citigroup will pay $20 million a year for the New York Mets new stadium, CitiField. Minute Maid Park in Houston costs $6 million a year. Cisco is paying the Oakland A's $4 million.

Wendt said naming rights have been successful deals in the Twin Cities for both parties.

"With the Target Center and the Xcel Center, fans can readily name the sponsors. And I believe that the fans believe that this kind of advertising has a real, positive effect on their opinion of Target and Xcel," he added.

TCF Bank is spending $35 million over 25 years to have the name of the new Gophers football stadium.

"It's a great investment when you think of the alternatives of traditional mainstream media: television, billboards, radio. The effectiveness of those mediums are dropping off as compared to sponsorship," said Ross.

Historically stadiums and fields were named after people. Wrigley Field is named after William Wrigley, the owner of the Chicago Cubs in 1926, and the owner of the chewing gum company. In Minnesota, the Twins and Vikings play in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, named after the former vice president.

In 1953, Anheuser-Busch wanted to name its stadium for the St. Louis Cardinals, "Budweiser Stadium" in honor of the beer. However, Major League Baseball pressed the company to not name the stadium after the beer. Instead, they named it after the company founder, and called it "Busch Stadium." Then the company launched a new product: Busch Beer.

There are always risks involved in partnering with a corporation. After Enron became the symbol of business scandal, the Houston Astros scrambled to buy out the naming rights deal that led to Enron Field.

Various bank mergers led to 34 different names for the TD Banknorth Boston Garden. It was going to be the FleetCenter, then the Shawmut Center, then the arena's owner put naming rights on eBay, auctioning off the right to name the stadium for one day.

Most deals are long-term, like the TCF Bank Stadium for the Gophers. However, according to Steve Ross, the biggest payoff is in the first eight years, when the stadium is perceived as being new.

"Even the Target Center [now], people talk about it and they don't immediately think about the corporation. They think of it as the Timberwolves, so the long-term value of it is questionable in that sense," said Ross.

When Target first bought the rights to Target Center in 1990, it paid just $1.25 million a year for a 15-year deal. That deal has been extended, according to Timberwolves spokesman Mike Cristaldi, although he declined to share the cost of that transaction.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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