Stadium to sport Dick's name
Pittsburgh-based Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. will have its name on a suburban Denver sports complex that will be home to Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids.
Dick's said Wednesday it signed a 20-year naming rights deal for Dicks Sporting Goods Park, a $130 million complex on a 917-acre site in Commerce City, Colo. The complex, which includes an 18,000-seat stadium and is to open in April, is being developed by a public-private partnership between Kroenke Sports Enterprises and Commerce City.
The value of the naming rights deal was estimated by SportsBusiness Daily to be worth as much as $40 million, but Jurgen Mianka, spokesman for the Colorado Rapids, and Jeff Hennion, chief marketing officer for Dick's, said that figure was incorrect. Dick's did not disclose how much it paid for the naming rights, Hennion said.
Major League Soccer, which has 12 teams, considers the length of the sponsorship and the size of the project to be one of the largest stadium sponsorship deals in American soccer history, Mianka said.
The deal will give Dick's signage and logo identification for the 18,000-seat stadium, not just in soccer-specific programs, but in all programming associated with the field and any use of the stadium and fields. That includes other sports teams, special events and concerts.
It is the first time Dick's has put its name on a stadium, but it has relationships with teams in all of the major professional sports, Hennion said.
The sports complex will include 24 practice fields for youth sports such as lacrosse and soccer, up to 1 million square feet of retail and commercial space, a new Commerce City municipal hall, offices for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, and a new visitors center for the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Range that abuts the site.
"As the largest full-line sporting goods retailer in the U.S., one of our primary goals is to support the communities in which we do business and the growth of youth sports within those communities," Hennion said.
Dick's will be the exclusive retail sporting goods partner of the stadium, fields, Colorado Rapids, Colorado Youth Soccer and NDP Lacrosse team, which will use the park.
The sporting goods company will become an affiliate sponsor of a number of soccer and lacrosse tournaments to be held at the site annually.
The stadium is pre-fitted for concert seating for 26,000 fans.
Dick's has seven stores in Colorado and plans an eighth in the Denver area. Dick's operates 268 stores in 34 states, most in the eastern U.S.
This is the second major sports-oriented participation Dick's has recently announced.
In September, the company said it will participate in the PGA Champions Tour event in July at the En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott, N.Y. The event, to be named the Dick's Sporting Goods Open, will carry a $1.6 million purse.
Naming deals in sports
PNC Park
Buyer: PNC Financial Services Group
Year: 2001
Deal: $30 million for 20 years
Heinz Field
Buyer: H.J. Heinz Co.
Year: 2001
Deal: 20 years for $57 million
Mellon Arena
Buyer: Mellon Financial Corp.
Year: 1999
Deal: $1.8 million annually for 10 years
Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati
Buyer: Great American Insurance Co.
Year: 2003
Deal: $2.5 million annually for 30 years
Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
Buyer: Citizens Bank
Year: 2004
Deal: $2.3 million annually for 24 years
Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Ballparks of Baseball
