Thread: Best and Worst Named Ball Park?

These days, all it takes is a few million dollars to get your brand on a ball park. A few years later, we have to call it something new when someone coughs up a couple million more. I don't care much for Target Field as a name but my vote for worst one goes to:

Minute Maid Park.

Makes me think of a couple of seven-year-old girls selling lemonade by the side of the road. It could be worse I guess. It could be Tampax Field or Gardasil Park.

Best names: Camden Yards would win but, according to Wikipedia, it's name is "Oriole Park at Camden Yards" which almost makes it suck. Therefore my choice is:

Fenway Park

I guess, though I hate to say it my best is simple and declarative-Yankee Stadium. (Would have been Tiger Stadium, but they didn't keep the name.)

Worst- I have something about Skydome that just rubs me the wrong way. But the Astros have had issues naming their field and Minute Maid Park beats what it replaced. (Enron Field). Luckliy the Astro's didn't offer naming rights to BP. That brings up a interesting question. WHat is the worst company that you can think of to have naming rights for a Team?

You got to open up to minor and independent league ballparks. There is where the real fun is from the American Legion Post 325 Field in Dan Daniel Memorial Park, home of the Appalachian League Danville Braves to Classic Park, home of the Lake County Captains of the South Atlantic League to Florida Auto Exchange Stadium home of the Dunedin Blue Jays of the Florida State League, to Haymarket Park, home of the Lincoln Saltdogs of the American Association, to HoHoKam Park home of the Mesa Solar Sox of the Arizona Fall League to Home of the OWLZ, home of the Orem Owlz of the Pioneer League, to LaGrave Field, home of the Fort Worth Cats of the American Association,to Rent One Park, home of the Southern Illinois Miners of the Frontier League and everything in between...

Now if you look at extinct ball park names, it is even more fun...

The best ballpark name is The Great American Ballpark and it's not even close.

When Dayton's became Marshall Fields I thought if they had bought the naming rights and the new Twins ballpark was named "Marshall Fields", it would have had a nice synergy. But Macy's bought Marshall Fields so it was not to be....

Oriole Park at Camden Yards is still an awesome name. Minute Maid, U.S. Cellular, and AT&T Park all are terrible names.

Current-- Great American Ballpark and I don't mind Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Classic names-- Three Rivers Stadium, Riverfront Stadium, Candlestick Park.
Worst company to own naming rights? GNC or any pharmaceutical company....

Originally Posted by Brock Beauchamp

The best ballpark name is The Great American Ballpark and it's not even close.

Truth.

Worst ballpark name Citi Field.

My favorite name would have to be Fenway Park. To a lesser degree, I like the stadiums named after their team - Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, Nationals Park, etc. I think the best corporately (is that a word?) named stadium is Miller Park since it's home to the Brewers, although I like Coors Field as well.

The worst name has to be O.co Coliseum. Sorry Oakland.

tbh Target Field is one of the better corporate names. Beer names work (Miller, Busch and Coors). Insurance, bank and communications are typically awful. SafeCo, AT&T, Rogers Centre (skydome is better), Progressive, citi, PNC, USCell, etc... PetCo is also awful.

On a related note, does anyone know the logic that makes these naming rights so damn valuable? There has to be an advertising study or tennant that shows that repeating it over and over has some positive effect, but I've never been able to figure out why it's worth so many millions of dollars.

Originally Posted by John Bonnes

On a related note, does anyone know the logic that makes these naming rights so damn valuable? There has to be an advertising study or tennant that shows that repeating it over and over has some positive effect, but I've never been able to figure out why it's worth so many millions of dollars.

It must be worth it I guess. All these companies have people smarter than us who crunch all the numbers and do all these studies to determine a fair price for major stadium naming rights.

Originally Posted by John Bonnes

On a related note, does anyone know the logic that makes these naming rights so damn valuable? There has to be an advertising study or tennant that shows that repeating it over and over has some positive effect, but I've never been able to figure out why it's worth so many millions of dollars.

well... NBC charged about $3.5 million for 30 seconds of ads during the last Superbowl. Citi Field has the highest naming rights contact as far as ballparks go and that is for $20 million annually for 20 years (If Citi bank is going to be around that long). If you do the math, quickly, this makes it a bargain compared to buying a 30 second superbowl ad.

Originally Posted by John Bonnes

On a related note, does anyone know the logic that makes these naming rights so damn valuable? There has to be an advertising study or tennant that shows that repeating it over and over has some positive effect, but I've never been able to figure out why it's worth so many millions of dollars.

What strikes me is the cost of selling the name. The teams lose brand value. The Yankees will never sell naming rights to Yankee Stadium because it would lessen their own brand. Non-team name fields names can have brand power: note Fenway, Wrigley and, even, Camden Yards. You will not get that with corporate-purchased names because they will change when a new advertiser is found or the company is bought or merges with another.

I think this name-selling will go away as teams realize this. It will be like the multi-purpose, artificial-turf, cookie-cutter stadiums of the 60's and 70's. They seemed like a good idea at the time but were completely ridiculous a generation later.

Originally Posted by Curt

Originally Posted by John Bonnes

On a related note, does anyone know the logic that makes these naming rights so damn valuable? There has to be an advertising study or tennant that shows that repeating it over and over has some positive effect, but I've never been able to figure out why it's worth so many millions of dollars.

What strikes me is the cost of selling the name. The teams lose brand value. The Yankees will never sell naming rights to Yankee Stadium because it would lessen their own brand. Non-team name fields names can have brand power: note Fenway, Wrigley and, even, Camden Yards. You will not get that with corporate-purchased names because they will change when a new advertiser is found or the company is bought or merges with another.

I think this name-selling will go away as teams realize this. It will be like the multi-purpose, artificial-turf, cookie-cutter stadiums of the 60's and 70's. They seemed like a good idea at the time but were completely ridiculous a generation later.

Very well said- there's huge money in selling naming rights, but some teams can afford not to and avoid "cheapening" their brand. I would point out though that Wrigley Field still shares a name with a "corporation" or brand. Still, its longevity lends it the same allure associated with Fenway.

For best park name, I'd probably give it to Great American Ballpark. It's simple yet grand and old-timey.

Worst park name would go to... man it's a tie between U.S. Cellular and Petco, I thoroughly dislike both names and their "feels"... nice post, inspired me to reply

Originally Posted by B Richard

Very well said- there's huge money in selling naming rights, but some teams can afford not to and avoid "cheapening" their brand. I would point out though that Wrigley Field still shares a name with a "corporation" or brand. Still, its longevity lends it the same allure associated with Fenway.

For best park name, I'd probably give it to Great American Ballpark. It's simple yet grand and old-timey.

Worst park name would go to... man it's a tie between U.S. Cellular and Petco, I thoroughly dislike both names and their "feels"... nice post, inspired me to reply

Let's be clear: Great American Ballpark is named for Great American Insurance Company which bought the naming rights. When they change advertising agencies, it could be re-named Plastic Trader Recycling Field.

Originally Posted by Curt

Originally Posted by B Richard

Very well said- there's huge money in selling naming rights, but some teams can afford not to and avoid "cheapening" their brand. I would point out though that Wrigley Field still shares a name with a "corporation" or brand. Still, its longevity lends it the same allure associated with Fenway.

For best park name, I'd probably give it to Great American Ballpark. It's simple yet grand and old-timey.

Worst park name would go to... man it's a tie between U.S. Cellular and Petco, I thoroughly dislike both names and their "feels"... nice post, inspired me to reply

Let's be clear: Great American Ballpark is named for Great American Insurance Company which bought the naming rights. When they change advertising agencies, it could be re-named Plastic Trader Recycling Field.

Ah, alas, I did not realize. Fantastic branding though, no matter which way you slice it. It's still my favorite name in the abstract, however.

Best: Yankee Stadium

No BS naming rights...the Yankees play there and it's a stadium.