Re: soccer stadium takes shape
A smaller 40,000 seat baseball only stadium in brick (see Jacobs Field, Cleveland and Camden Yards, Baltimore) would compliment the soccer stadium at Exhibition Place.
BTW...
Toronto Star reports announcement is pending: BMO buys stadium naming rights
Link to article
Aug. 31, 2006. 07:43 AM
RICK WESTHEAD
BUSINESS REPORTER
Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment, the privately held sports concern that owns hockey's Maple Leafs and basketball's Raptors, has agreed to sell naming rights to its new soccer stadium in downtown Toronto to the Bank of Montreal.
Two sources familiar with the agreement told the Toronto Star that the pact with BMO is expected to be announced in September.
The contract is said to be worth as much as $27 million over 10 years, in line with what many sports industry officials expected.
Maple Leaf Sports obtained the corporate naming rights to the city's new downtown soccer stadium from a consortium of public-sector partners after it agreed to pay $10 million over 20 years for the right to sell naming rights and other sponsorships for the facility, currently under construction at Exhibition Place.
Besides selling the title sponsorship to the new 20,000-seat stadium, where Major League Soccer's Toronto FC will play its home games, MLSE also has the right to keep any revenue collected from associate sponsors. Those contracts, with the likes of car companies and brewers, are likely to be worth at least $250,000 a year, industry sources said.
Signing a stadium naming rights agreement is no guarantee a company will reap long-term rewards.
Stadium naming is a comparatively new way for team owners to generate more money.
Some of the biggest such deals were signed in 1999 and 2000 when Reliant Energy agreed to pay $320 million (U.S.) over 32 years for the right to name the stadium where the National Football League's Houston Texans play.
And to be sure, there have been instances where naming rights agreements have ended in public embarrassment.
In 2002, for instance, baseball's Houston Astros paid $2.1 million to reacquire the naming rights for the former Enron Field after the Houston-based energy company became embroiled in scandal.
While one veteran sports marketer said the stadium's proximity to the Gardiner Expressway made it a coveted property, others were more skeptical about BMO's ability to use the stadium to bolster revenue.
"You've got 250,000 cars going by at rush hour twice a day but you could also have just bought a billboard next to the highway," said Keith McIntyre, a Toronto sports marketer.
Maple Leaf Sports spokesperson Rajani Kamath said he had no comment. "Nothing's been finalized. We aren't ready to announce anything yet."
BMO spokesperson Ralph Marranca wouldn't comment "on rumour or speculation." The new $62.5 million soccer stadium will be owned by the city. The federal government will contribute $27 million while the province has made an $8 million pledge.
Toronto has agreed to provide land worth $10 million and $9.8 million in cash and MLSE has been responsible for contributing and raising $18 million.
MLSE also stands to generate revenue from the sale of luxury-suite tickets — there are plans to build at least 10 private boxes — as well as income from tickets, parking and concessions.
