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#21
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Posted 08 July 2004 - 07:40 PM
I know, Shawmut Centre was a good name. It was like it wasn't even a corporate name, it very well could have been named that without a corporate naming deal. Maybe BofA will back out of the naming deal and we can name it that.
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Posted 08 July 2004 - 09:10 PM
I heard BoA may let the naming rights go due to the high prices some other local companies are bidding. I wonder why BoA is so slow to change the Fleet name on its banks. The Fleet name is still all over New England.
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Posted 08 July 2004 - 09:33 PM
tocoto, on Jul 8 2004, 11:10 PM, said:
I wonder why BoA is so slow to change the Fleet name on its banks. The Fleet name is still all over New England.
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Posted 02 September 2004 - 07:16 AM
FleetCenter name to die soon; new label uncertain
By Sasha Talcott, Globe Staff | September 2, 2004
Bank of America Corp. is close to a deal to put its own name on the FleetCenter, executives said yesterday.
The bank surprised some in the advertising world by declining to change the building's signs in time for the Democratic National Convention in July, but it now expects to have its name on the FleetCenter this fall, said Anne Finucane, Bank of America's president for the Northeast. She and other executives who spoke to The Boston Globe yesterday did not say what the building would be called, but said it will not contain the word ''garden," as in Boston Garden, the name of the now-demolished arena that preceded the FleetCenter at North Station.
Bank of America has been negotiating for months over the building's name and, until recently, there was little movement toward a deal.
Under Fleet Bank's current contract, negotiated in the mid-1990s, the bank was allowed to change the center's name once. But that already happened when Fleet bought Shawmut National Corp., which had signed the original agreement with the arena.
Though Bank of America has long said it intends to put its own name on the building, it has shown little eagerness to rush into a deal. The bank will not change the Fleet signs at its Boston bank branches to Bank of America signs until December, so the Fleet name is not yet out of date here.
Bank of America has already put its own name on advertising signs at Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium.
Fleet pays $2 million a year to have its name on the FleetCenter. The building's owner, Delaware North Cos., has indicated it would like Bank of America's new contract to match sponsorship agreements for other similar sports facilities, which can cost between $3 million and $6 million a year. Staples Inc., for example, is paying $116 million over 20 years to have its name on the Staples Center in Los Angeles, an average of $5.8 million a year. Naming rights for the new Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia cost $57.5 million over 25 years, plus $37.5 million to be the only financial services company allowed to have ads during games.
A FleetCenter spokesman, Jim Delaney, said, ''It's still in negotiations, but I think you can say it's at a more advanced stage than it was several months ago."
From The Boston Globe
By Sasha Talcott, Globe Staff | September 2, 2004
Bank of America Corp. is close to a deal to put its own name on the FleetCenter, executives said yesterday.
The bank surprised some in the advertising world by declining to change the building's signs in time for the Democratic National Convention in July, but it now expects to have its name on the FleetCenter this fall, said Anne Finucane, Bank of America's president for the Northeast. She and other executives who spoke to The Boston Globe yesterday did not say what the building would be called, but said it will not contain the word ''garden," as in Boston Garden, the name of the now-demolished arena that preceded the FleetCenter at North Station.
Bank of America has been negotiating for months over the building's name and, until recently, there was little movement toward a deal.
Under Fleet Bank's current contract, negotiated in the mid-1990s, the bank was allowed to change the center's name once. But that already happened when Fleet bought Shawmut National Corp., which had signed the original agreement with the arena.
Though Bank of America has long said it intends to put its own name on the building, it has shown little eagerness to rush into a deal. The bank will not change the Fleet signs at its Boston bank branches to Bank of America signs until December, so the Fleet name is not yet out of date here.
Bank of America has already put its own name on advertising signs at Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium.
Fleet pays $2 million a year to have its name on the FleetCenter. The building's owner, Delaware North Cos., has indicated it would like Bank of America's new contract to match sponsorship agreements for other similar sports facilities, which can cost between $3 million and $6 million a year. Staples Inc., for example, is paying $116 million over 20 years to have its name on the Staples Center in Los Angeles, an average of $5.8 million a year. Naming rights for the new Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia cost $57.5 million over 25 years, plus $37.5 million to be the only financial services company allowed to have ads during games.
A FleetCenter spokesman, Jim Delaney, said, ''It's still in negotiations, but I think you can say it's at a more advanced stage than it was several months ago."
From The Boston Globe
#26
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Posted 03 December 2004 - 07:59 AM
Cotuit, on Jul 8 2004, 04:39 PM, said:
I suppose there is an outside chance that BofA will let it go and someone else will bid on it
Well, I guess that chance wasn't so outside afterall...
Looking for a sign
Big retailers, telecoms, and banks emerge as possible naming-rights bidders
By Sasha Talcott, Globe Staff | December 3, 2004
With Bank of America Corp. giving up on putting its name on the home of the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins, how would Liberty Center or CVS Forum sound?
Boston insurer Liberty Mutual Group and CVS Corp., the pharmacy chain based in Rhode Island, are two of the many possibilities that keep coming up when marketing specialists discuss companies that could be interested in bidding for naming rights to what is still anachronistically called the FleetCenter.
Sovereign Bancorp, Banknorth Group, Citizens Financial Group, and Reebok International would also be good candidates, said Diane Brickley, a partner in Moulter/Brickley Associates, a sports and entertainment consulting firm. Still, the cost for any company is likely to be high.
"It's a considerable investment," she said. "The market will sift itself out."
The list of potential parties also includes big retailers and telecommunications companies.
A spokesman for CVS said the company is "possibly" interested in naming rights to the FleetCenter, while a Sovereign Bancorp spokesman declined to say whether the bank would be interested but described the arena as a "real jewel in the community."
Bank of America completed its acquisition of Fleet last spring, and it recently has been negotiating to get out of Fleet's 15-year contract. To undo that, Bank of America would have to pay millions more to rename the building Bank of America Center. Bank of America would have to pay a fee to leave the $2 million-per-year FleetCenter contract, which is slated to end in 2010. But if the two parties agree, the arena's new owner, Delaware North Cos., then can offer naming rights to others.
Several of the region's likely candidates to replace Fleet -- including Citizens, Gillette, and Staples -- already have their names on other sports venues. A Citizens spokeswoman declined to comment; Staples said it has no plans to name the building; and a Gillette spokesman said the company is "extremely pleased" with having its name on Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, and would have to weigh carefully any future naming rights deals.
Other companies that have the money for the deal, such as Fidelity Investments and New Balance, say they have no interest in naming the center. "If you look around town there are not a lot of buildings with our name on it," said Anne Crowley, a Fidelity spokeswoman. "We don't typically do that type of naming of buildings."
The cost could hinder some interested parties. Banknorth's Massachusetts president, Chris Bramley, said renaming the FleetCenter would likely be too expensive for the bank.
A spokeswoman said Reebok has no plans to pursue a FleetCenter deal.
During its negotiations with FleetCenter's owner, Bank of America briefly floated an idea to rename the center the Boston Garden, the name of the now-demolished arena that the FleetCenter replaced in the 1990s. That idea now appears to be off the table.
Representatives of Bank of America and the FleetCenter declined to comment.
Under Fleet's current contract for naming rights at the FleetCenter, negotiated in the mid-1990s, the bank was allowed to change the center's name once for free. But that happened when Fleet bought Shawmut National Corp., which had signed an agreement to name the building the Shawmut Center.
Executives at the FleetCenter and Bank of America spent months negotiating a new contract, but the bank ultimately balked on the price. Naming rights for similar venues can run about $6 million per year, far more than the $2 million Fleet had been paying.
The company that ends up renaming the FleetCenter could come from out of the region. Though companies tend to name sports arenas near their headquarters, some, such as Staples and Citizens, name venues elsewhere to increase their name recognition.
Naming rights deals continue to be extremely popular, though their benefit is difficult to measure, said William Chipps, a senior editor at IEG Sponsorship Report, a Chicago newsletter that tracks corporate sponsorships. "For a lot of these deals, it's real ego-driven from the CEO," he said. "A lot of these companies could get a better return on their investments from other types of sponsorships."
From The Boston Globe
#27
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Posted 03 December 2004 - 01:28 PM
So what's happening with the Fleet Skating rink in Providence?
#28
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Posted 03 December 2004 - 02:33 PM
Ron Newman, on Dec 3 2004, 02:28 PM, said:
So what's happening with the Fleet Skating rink in Providence?
It was announced a few months ago that it would be renamed the Bank of America Skating Centre. It opened for the season a few weeks ago and still carries the Fleet moniker. It was supposed to have been renamed before it opened, so I don't really know what is up with that.
The city is also working out a deal to have the rink run by a private company, it's currently being run by the city through the Civic Centre Authority (at a loss). The rink loses a lot of money during the summer, because there has never been a good plan for what to do with it. Last year it was a skateboard park, this year they didn't set up the skateboard park because it costs too much to tear down the park for events however, there weren't too many events there this summer.
This thread has more info.
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Posted 12 December 2004 - 09:24 PM
CVS takes shot at FleetCenter
By John Persinos, contributing writer | 12/11/2004
CVS stands for “Consumer Value Stores,” but soon the “S” might stand for “sports.”
The FleetCenter, a high-profile name in the Boston sports and arts world, will likely adopt the name of a different corporate sponsor, as Fleet’s acquirer, Bank of America, gives signals that it wants out of the contract with the facility.
One contender to replace the Fleet name is the giant Woonsocket-based drugstore chain, CVS.
Bank of America has informed the FleetCenter that it doesn’t want to put its name on the building, reversing its previous decision to change the name of the facility to the Bank of America Center, in the wake of its $48 billion acquisition of FleetBoston Financial Corp.
The bank has even suggested changing the name back to the venerable moniker “Boston Garden,” evoking Bobby Orr flying through the air, Larry Bird making jump shots and other hagiographic images of a bygone era.
The Boston Garden was demolished in 1995 after becoming decrepit and obsolete. In a time when some cultural touchstones get recycled, from movies to television shows to music, it’s perhaps fitting that the beloved and evocative name Boston Garden may live again.
However, despite the idea’s sentimental appeal, it has lost steam recently, because Bank of America would have to pony up a premium to make the name change.
Moreover, the move would present an obstacle for the FleetCenter’s owner, Delaware North Cos., to later sell the valuable naming rights.
According to the trade industry publication American Banker, financial services companies annually spend in excess of $200 million in marketing dollars on sports, more than on any other sector. Fleet pays about $2 million annually for the privilege of having its name on the FleetCenter.
Negotiations between the FleetCenter and Bank of America recently stalled, with the latter trying to engineer an early exit from its name contract, which expires in 2010. If the bank succeeds and wriggles free from its obligation, it would open the way for other companies to get an opportunity to slap their names on the building.
A CVS official confirmed that the company is interested in a deal, but refused to reveal any details. “We’re possibly interested and that’s all I can say at this point,” said CVS spokesperson Todd Andrews.
Analysts contend that a CVS sponsorship would reap many marketing benefits for the company.
“Whether it makes sense for a company to put its name on a sports facility like the FleetCenter depends on the company and its marketing goals,” said William Chipps, senior editor, IEG Sponsorship Report, a Chicago-based newsletter that monitors corporate brand marketing and sponsorships. “The specific dollar value is hard to quantify, but there certainly are marketing advantages. A company can demonstrate its support of the community where it’s based, or it can be an ego-driven effort whereby the CEO wants to make his mark.”
In the case of CVS, he said the most logical rationale would be to use the sponsorship as a promotional platform for consumers and business-to-business customers.
“This tactic would appeal the most to CVS,” Chipps said. “CVS could run promotions at local outlets, offering a chance to, say, win tickets at upcoming games or concerts, or the company could use those tickets to entertain executives from pharmaceutical companies that distribute drugs through CVS. For CVS, the cross-promotional aspects would be the greatest opportunity. It would make sense for CVS, but any sponsor would want a healthy ROI. Just slapping your name on a sports center, as a form of advertising, is a losing proposition – it all depends on the marketing follow-through.”
CVS has another connection with the naming of a sports facility. The University of Rhode Island’s Ryan Center, an 8,000-seat arena on the college’s Kingston campus, is named for Thomas M. Ryan, the chairman and CEO of CVS, who was a key financial supporter of the new arena.
From Providence Business News
By John Persinos, contributing writer | 12/11/2004
CVS stands for “Consumer Value Stores,” but soon the “S” might stand for “sports.”
The FleetCenter, a high-profile name in the Boston sports and arts world, will likely adopt the name of a different corporate sponsor, as Fleet’s acquirer, Bank of America, gives signals that it wants out of the contract with the facility.
One contender to replace the Fleet name is the giant Woonsocket-based drugstore chain, CVS.
Bank of America has informed the FleetCenter that it doesn’t want to put its name on the building, reversing its previous decision to change the name of the facility to the Bank of America Center, in the wake of its $48 billion acquisition of FleetBoston Financial Corp.
The bank has even suggested changing the name back to the venerable moniker “Boston Garden,” evoking Bobby Orr flying through the air, Larry Bird making jump shots and other hagiographic images of a bygone era.
The Boston Garden was demolished in 1995 after becoming decrepit and obsolete. In a time when some cultural touchstones get recycled, from movies to television shows to music, it’s perhaps fitting that the beloved and evocative name Boston Garden may live again.
However, despite the idea’s sentimental appeal, it has lost steam recently, because Bank of America would have to pony up a premium to make the name change.
Moreover, the move would present an obstacle for the FleetCenter’s owner, Delaware North Cos., to later sell the valuable naming rights.
According to the trade industry publication American Banker, financial services companies annually spend in excess of $200 million in marketing dollars on sports, more than on any other sector. Fleet pays about $2 million annually for the privilege of having its name on the FleetCenter.
Negotiations between the FleetCenter and Bank of America recently stalled, with the latter trying to engineer an early exit from its name contract, which expires in 2010. If the bank succeeds and wriggles free from its obligation, it would open the way for other companies to get an opportunity to slap their names on the building.
A CVS official confirmed that the company is interested in a deal, but refused to reveal any details. “We’re possibly interested and that’s all I can say at this point,” said CVS spokesperson Todd Andrews.
Analysts contend that a CVS sponsorship would reap many marketing benefits for the company.
“Whether it makes sense for a company to put its name on a sports facility like the FleetCenter depends on the company and its marketing goals,” said William Chipps, senior editor, IEG Sponsorship Report, a Chicago-based newsletter that monitors corporate brand marketing and sponsorships. “The specific dollar value is hard to quantify, but there certainly are marketing advantages. A company can demonstrate its support of the community where it’s based, or it can be an ego-driven effort whereby the CEO wants to make his mark.”
In the case of CVS, he said the most logical rationale would be to use the sponsorship as a promotional platform for consumers and business-to-business customers.
“This tactic would appeal the most to CVS,” Chipps said. “CVS could run promotions at local outlets, offering a chance to, say, win tickets at upcoming games or concerts, or the company could use those tickets to entertain executives from pharmaceutical companies that distribute drugs through CVS. For CVS, the cross-promotional aspects would be the greatest opportunity. It would make sense for CVS, but any sponsor would want a healthy ROI. Just slapping your name on a sports center, as a form of advertising, is a losing proposition – it all depends on the marketing follow-through.”
CVS has another connection with the naming of a sports facility. The University of Rhode Island’s Ryan Center, an 8,000-seat arena on the college’s Kingston campus, is named for Thomas M. Ryan, the chairman and CEO of CVS, who was a key financial supporter of the new arena.
From Providence Business News
#30
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Posted 26 December 2004 - 03:21 PM
I've since read that CVS is no longer interested in naming rights here.
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Posted 26 December 2004 - 04:01 PM
It doesn't seem like anyone wants it. I wonder what happens to BofA if they can't unload it. They can't change the name without renegotiating.
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Posted 27 December 2004 - 02:11 PM
Apparently, BOA is not interested at all in the Fleet Center naming rights.. I heard that they put it on the market; the naming rights that is...
Word on the street is Citizens Bank wants it.. We'll see..
Word on the street is Citizens Bank wants it.. We'll see..
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Posted 28 December 2004 - 03:25 PM
I wouldn't like Citizens Bank to have the naming rights. With the destruction of Fleet and the loss of other major Boston area companies, I think it would really mean something to keep the naming rights local (have a Massachusetts company only).
I'm not so sure Citizens would want the rights either, they already have a baseball stadium. The move may backfire because people dislike corporate naming rights and Citizens may oversaturate their name in the market if they get it. Not a smart move, imo. How about they put the money into something worthwhile
.
I would have loved to have seen BankNorth get the naming rights. They are a really up and coming bank.
I'm not so sure Citizens would want the rights either, they already have a baseball stadium. The move may backfire because people dislike corporate naming rights and Citizens may oversaturate their name in the market if they get it. Not a smart move, imo. How about they put the money into something worthwhile
.I would have loved to have seen BankNorth get the naming rights. They are a really up and coming bank.
Edited by Benhamin, 28 December 2004 - 03:28 PM.
#34
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Posted 28 December 2004 - 06:55 PM
Benhamin, on Dec 28 2004, 04:25 PM, said:
I wouldn't like Citizens Bank to have the naming rights. With the destruction of Fleet and the loss of other major Boston area companies, I think it would really mean something to keep the naming rights local (have a Massachusetts company only).
Citizens is a Rhode Island bank.
Technically it's owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
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Posted 28 December 2004 - 08:11 PM
^ No crap it's a RI bank, but as I said, we should keep the naming rights local to BOSTON, not Rhode Island. I really hope BankNorth overtakes Citizen's in the future, and it could happen. I like to see Worcester overcome Providence
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Posted 05 January 2005 - 07:24 AM
from today's Boston Globe:
Bank gives up FleetCenter naming rights
By Sasha Talcott, Globe Staff | January 5, 2005
Bank of America Corp. has agreed to give up its rights to put its name on the FleetCenter, freeing the arena's owner, Delaware North Cos., to open up a bidding war for naming rights to the home of the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins.
Bank of America will pay an undisclosed fee, likely in the range of $2 million to $3 million, to get out of the final six years of FleetBoston Financial Corp.'s 15-year, $30 million contract that put its name on the FleetCenter. Bank of America bought Fleet for $48 billion in April, acquiring the naming rights in the process. The arena is expected to keep the FleetCenter name only until Delaware North can find a new buyer for the naming rights.
The agreement marks an end to a tumultuous year of negotiations between the bank and Delaware North over what the arena would be called. The two sides got so close to a deal in the fall to rename the arena the Bank of America Center that bank executives took measurements of the signs. But in the weeks that followed, the agreement crumbled as the bank test-marketed the title with focus groups and realized that Bostonians might never call the arena by its full name. The bank also concluded that it already had high brand awareness in the region even without naming the building.
Over the summer, the bank also decided to concentrate its sports-marketing efforts on Major League Baseball, for which it is the official bank, the minor leagues, Little League Baseball, professional football, and the Olympics.
Bank of America's president of the Northeast region, Anne Finucane, said in a statement to be released today that the bank has decided to refocus on its "core sponsorship marketing priorities."
"Our company has enjoyed a valuable partnership with Delaware North and the FleetCenter for the better part of the last decade," Finucane said in the statement. She declined to be interviewed yesterday.
FleetCenter executives said yesterday they were optimistic that they could find another corporate partner soon. Executives already have said they are receiving phone calls from about a dozen interested companies locally and nationally, though they declined to discuss who they are.
"I'm very proud of the stature the FleetCenter holds in the industry and the reputation it has developed locally," said Richard Krezwick, president and chief executive of the FleetCenter. "There's no doubt in my mind we'll wind up with a very strong naming-rights partner."
Typically, naming rights are bought by large corporations that are trying to establish name recognition or that are based in the same region as the sports facility.
In this instance, however, some of the expected bidders have bowed out. CVS Corp., the Rhode Island pharmacy chain, said in December that it was "possibly" interested in renaming the FleetCenter, but a spokesman said recently that CVS now has decided against pursuing the naming rights.
Liberty Mutual Group said it has no plans to rename the arena. Citizens Financial Group and Sovereign Bancorp declined to comment.
In searching for a new corporate sponsor, FleetCenter executives will have two potential problems, said Larry Moulter, former chairman of the FleetCenter who is now a sports marketing executive: The diminishing number of big companies headquartered in the region, and the fact that naming-rights deals may be less popular than they were in the mid-1990s. But he said current FleetCenter executives should have no trouble finding a sponsor because the building already has established itself as a major sports and entertainment hub.
"It's clearly an important building," Moulter said. "That's an attractive proposition for a corporation. You're not taking a leap of faith here. Some company will find it beneficial and attractive to be involved with it."
Other big New England names that have come up include: Banknorth Group, office-supply giant Staples Inc., and Reebok International Ltd., the maker of athletic footwear and apparel. Banknorth already has a sponsorship with the Boston Bruins, though an executive said last month that naming the FleetCenter might be too expensive. Reebok and Staples have said they have no plans to rename the arena.
The new sponsor also may come from outside the region: Krezwick, the FleetCenter executive, said half his inquiries have been from national companies. Both the national and local companies have expressed "varying degrees of interest," he said.
Under Fleet's naming-rights contract, negotiated in the mid-1990s, the bank was allowed to change the center's name once. But that already happened when Fleet bought Shawmut National Corp., which had signed the original agreement with the arena. FleetCenter executives have indicated they would like any new contract to match sponsorship agreements for other similar sports facilities, which can cost around $6 million a year.
Bank of America now will pay an undisclosed sum to leave Fleet's naming-rights contract. Fleet's naming-rights contract runs through 2010, and the bank owes the FleetCenter about $9 million more over the remainder. The bank likely will pay about 25 percent of that, or between $2 million and $3 million, to walk out early from the contract, according to E.J. Narcise, a principal with Team Services, a Maryland sports marketing and sales company.
The FleetCenter's management now can negotiate an agreement with a new corporate sponsor for more money than Fleet had been paying.
In other areas of the country, Bank of America has sent mixed messages about its desire to do naming-rights deals. It recently decided not to renew its sponsorship of the Bank of America Centre in Boise, Idaho. The bank did, however, put its name recently on Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., home of the Carolina Panthers. Bank of America is headquartered in Charlotte.
Among major naming-rights deals nationally, the FleetCenter ranked below major sports venues in most other big cities, according to data compiled by IEG Sponsorship Report, a Chicago newsletter that tracks corporate sponsorships. Football stadiums tended to command the biggest prices, in part because of the huge television audiences for National Football League games. Staples is paying $116 million over 20 years to have its name on the Staples Center in Los Angeles, an average of $5.8 million a year.
Sasha Talcott can be reached at stalcott@globe.com.
Bank gives up FleetCenter naming rights
By Sasha Talcott, Globe Staff | January 5, 2005
Bank of America Corp. has agreed to give up its rights to put its name on the FleetCenter, freeing the arena's owner, Delaware North Cos., to open up a bidding war for naming rights to the home of the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins.
Bank of America will pay an undisclosed fee, likely in the range of $2 million to $3 million, to get out of the final six years of FleetBoston Financial Corp.'s 15-year, $30 million contract that put its name on the FleetCenter. Bank of America bought Fleet for $48 billion in April, acquiring the naming rights in the process. The arena is expected to keep the FleetCenter name only until Delaware North can find a new buyer for the naming rights.
The agreement marks an end to a tumultuous year of negotiations between the bank and Delaware North over what the arena would be called. The two sides got so close to a deal in the fall to rename the arena the Bank of America Center that bank executives took measurements of the signs. But in the weeks that followed, the agreement crumbled as the bank test-marketed the title with focus groups and realized that Bostonians might never call the arena by its full name. The bank also concluded that it already had high brand awareness in the region even without naming the building.
Over the summer, the bank also decided to concentrate its sports-marketing efforts on Major League Baseball, for which it is the official bank, the minor leagues, Little League Baseball, professional football, and the Olympics.
Bank of America's president of the Northeast region, Anne Finucane, said in a statement to be released today that the bank has decided to refocus on its "core sponsorship marketing priorities."
"Our company has enjoyed a valuable partnership with Delaware North and the FleetCenter for the better part of the last decade," Finucane said in the statement. She declined to be interviewed yesterday.
FleetCenter executives said yesterday they were optimistic that they could find another corporate partner soon. Executives already have said they are receiving phone calls from about a dozen interested companies locally and nationally, though they declined to discuss who they are.
"I'm very proud of the stature the FleetCenter holds in the industry and the reputation it has developed locally," said Richard Krezwick, president and chief executive of the FleetCenter. "There's no doubt in my mind we'll wind up with a very strong naming-rights partner."
Typically, naming rights are bought by large corporations that are trying to establish name recognition or that are based in the same region as the sports facility.
In this instance, however, some of the expected bidders have bowed out. CVS Corp., the Rhode Island pharmacy chain, said in December that it was "possibly" interested in renaming the FleetCenter, but a spokesman said recently that CVS now has decided against pursuing the naming rights.
Liberty Mutual Group said it has no plans to rename the arena. Citizens Financial Group and Sovereign Bancorp declined to comment.
In searching for a new corporate sponsor, FleetCenter executives will have two potential problems, said Larry Moulter, former chairman of the FleetCenter who is now a sports marketing executive: The diminishing number of big companies headquartered in the region, and the fact that naming-rights deals may be less popular than they were in the mid-1990s. But he said current FleetCenter executives should have no trouble finding a sponsor because the building already has established itself as a major sports and entertainment hub.
"It's clearly an important building," Moulter said. "That's an attractive proposition for a corporation. You're not taking a leap of faith here. Some company will find it beneficial and attractive to be involved with it."
Other big New England names that have come up include: Banknorth Group, office-supply giant Staples Inc., and Reebok International Ltd., the maker of athletic footwear and apparel. Banknorth already has a sponsorship with the Boston Bruins, though an executive said last month that naming the FleetCenter might be too expensive. Reebok and Staples have said they have no plans to rename the arena.
The new sponsor also may come from outside the region: Krezwick, the FleetCenter executive, said half his inquiries have been from national companies. Both the national and local companies have expressed "varying degrees of interest," he said.
Under Fleet's naming-rights contract, negotiated in the mid-1990s, the bank was allowed to change the center's name once. But that already happened when Fleet bought Shawmut National Corp., which had signed the original agreement with the arena. FleetCenter executives have indicated they would like any new contract to match sponsorship agreements for other similar sports facilities, which can cost around $6 million a year.
Bank of America now will pay an undisclosed sum to leave Fleet's naming-rights contract. Fleet's naming-rights contract runs through 2010, and the bank owes the FleetCenter about $9 million more over the remainder. The bank likely will pay about 25 percent of that, or between $2 million and $3 million, to walk out early from the contract, according to E.J. Narcise, a principal with Team Services, a Maryland sports marketing and sales company.
The FleetCenter's management now can negotiate an agreement with a new corporate sponsor for more money than Fleet had been paying.
In other areas of the country, Bank of America has sent mixed messages about its desire to do naming-rights deals. It recently decided not to renew its sponsorship of the Bank of America Centre in Boise, Idaho. The bank did, however, put its name recently on Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., home of the Carolina Panthers. Bank of America is headquartered in Charlotte.
Among major naming-rights deals nationally, the FleetCenter ranked below major sports venues in most other big cities, according to data compiled by IEG Sponsorship Report, a Chicago newsletter that tracks corporate sponsorships. Football stadiums tended to command the biggest prices, in part because of the huge television audiences for National Football League games. Staples is paying $116 million over 20 years to have its name on the Staples Center in Los Angeles, an average of $5.8 million a year.
Sasha Talcott can be reached at stalcott@globe.com.
#37
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- Banned
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Whistle-Stop
- Location:Cambridge, MA
Posted 05 January 2005 - 08:14 AM
I really hope a local company steps up to the plate. I'd hate to see some large multinational that doesnt have a presence in the area win the naming rights. I wonder if Fidelity is bidding. The Fidelity Center. Not sure if I like that though...but Reebok Center would be cool...
#38
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- Global Moderators
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- 13,396 posts
Megalopolis
- Location:State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
Posted 05 January 2005 - 08:16 AM
BofA has announced that it will take over the naming rights of Providence's Fleet Skating Centre (the public skating rink in Kennedy Plaza). Obviously those naming rights are quite a bit cheaper than Boston's Fleet Centre. The Fleet names came off the skating centre earlier this month when BofA officially rebranded it's New England Fleet branches, though the BofA name has yet to go up.
#39
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- Members+
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- 104 posts
Whistle-Stop
- Location:Somerville, MA (that's near Boston)
Posted 05 January 2005 - 11:39 AM
I still haven't heard what is going to happen to the name of the FleetBoston Pavilion, a summer music tent on the Boston waterfront that was originally called Harborlights.
"New Balance Center" would be a cool, quirky name for the ex-FleetCenter ...
"New Balance Center" would be a cool, quirky name for the ex-FleetCenter ...
Edited by Ron Newman, 05 January 2005 - 11:40 AM.
#40
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Megalopolis
- Location:State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
Posted 05 January 2005 - 12:56 PM
I still call the FleetBoston Pavillion Harborlights. I went to a concert there over the summer and was looking at their website beforehand, and somewhere buried in it I found reference to the BankBoston Pavillion or whatever it was called before.
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