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The Washington Nationals are taking the plunge into the stadium naming rights game, and have partnered up with MLB Advanced Media and consulting firm Korn Ferry to sell the naming rights to Nationals Park.
Affectionately known as “Nats Park” by locals, the ballpark has been adorned with the Nationals Park moniker since its opening in 2008. The club has been mulling the sale of the stadium naming rights for some time, and a 2013 estimate said the club could earn as much as $15M per year from a naming rights deal, the Washington Post reports.
For some perspective on just how much revenue a deal can generate for a club, we need to look no further than the rival New York Mets, who inked a deal with CitiBank in 2009 to brand their home as CitiField, at a cost of around $400M for 20 years.
The Nationals, owned by DC's No. 1 real estate dynasty, the Lerner family, finished last season with the fifth-highest payroll in MLB, and are on the hook for about $140M this season. If we base estimates on the cost of living in a ballpark neighborhood, the Nats should have little trouble turning their naming rights into a potential goldmine to help offset those costs. [WaPo]
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