Prospects for a new name on Baltimore's football stadium may have improved recently - and not because it was depicted in one of the summer's blockbuster movies.
Two recent lucrative naming rights deals for stadiums - in Philadelphia and Houston - have rekindled discussions between the Baltimore Ravens and prospective sponsors.
The Ravens are looking to replace previous sponsor PSINet Inc., which dissolved in bankruptcy this spring. The team paid $5.9 million to buy out of its 20-year, $105.5 million arrangement after three years.
The PSINet collapse helped contribute to a downturn in the naming-rights market. It was one in a string of embarrassments in which companies spent tens of millions to put their names on stadiums and later struggled or went out of business, most famously Enron Corp., the former energy giant in Houston.
But the Houston Astros' replacement of Enron with a sweeter deal from Minute Maid Co., for an estimated $170 million over 28 years, and the Philadelphia Eagles' pact with Lincoln Financial Group for $140 million over 20 years have re-established the market for such sponsorships, industry officials say.
In addition, Federal Express agreed to pay $90 million over 23 years to sponsor the Memphis Grizzlies' basketball arena in the shipping firm's home city.
The three name deals of 2002 average $5.65 million a year. That is about 40 percent more than last year's average of $4 million a year for three deals, according to the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. Eight deals in 2000 averaged $4.26 million a year, and 10 deals in 1999, including the Ravens', averaged $4.8 million, the previous high.
Ravens spokesman Kevin Byrne said last week that the team will contact companies that initially inquired about the stadium name after the PSINet arrangement ended. The Ravens didn't pursue discussions then, in part because of the weak market. Byrne declined to identify companies that contacted the team.
"We haven't put a timeline on it," he said. "We haven't said we have to have it done by the first preseason game or the first regular season game."
The Ravens played their first season at Camden Yards in 1998 without a sponsor. The PSINet agreement wasn't struck until the next winter. The stadium has since been host to several national telecasts, including Ravens playoff and Monday night games, and an Army-Navy football game. It is portrayed in The Sum of All Fears, a movie based on a Tom Clancy novel.
Some in the sports-marketing industry who are familiar with the Ravens said they hadn't sensed any urgency about finding a replacement for PSINet, but that might change given the recent news elsewhere. Byrne said the Ravens don't have a broker shopping the name, as the team did the last time.
"The recent deals bode well for anybody seeking naming rights," Byrne said. "Now we can say, 'Let's discuss Philadelphia; let's discuss the Astros.'"
The Tennessee Titans recently won approval in federal Bankruptcy Court to sever the $30 million, 15-year sponsorship arrangement they had with Adelphia Business Solutions Inc. for their stadium in Nashville. The telecommunications company filed for Chapter 11 protection in March.
Adelphia is the fifth name to fall off a stadium for economic reasons in recent years, after PSINet, Enron Field in Houston, the TWA Dome in St. Louis and Pro Player Stadium in Miami.
Another stadium sponsor, Internet company CMGI Inc., is trading for less than $1 a share. It might be delisted from the stock market before the stadium on which it paid to have its name opens in September for the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots.
"CMGI and Pro Player and PSINet and many others failed for reasons unique to their business. They didn't fail because they had naming rights," said Dean Bonham, whose Denver firm brokers stadium name deals. "We're on the cusp of a recovery, and Baltimore's timing is pretty good."
He and others acknowledged that Baltimore isn't as large or as wealthy a market as Philadelphia and Houston, which needed only a few months to replace Enron's $100 million, 30-year pact with one that could be nearly twice as rich from Houston-based Minute Maid.
But experts also say that the Ravens, since winning the Super Bowl, are better known than in 1999.
About 20 major stadiums have shopped for months for corporate name contracts, from the Seattle Seahawks' new stadium to the 27-year-old Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.
In February, when financial consultant Edward D. Jones and Co. agreed to pay $31.8 million over 12 years to put its name on the dome that houses the St. Louis Rams, who have played in two of the past three Super Bowls, some in sports marketing lamented it as the end of the $100 million deal. Jones replaced airline operator TWA Corp., another bankrupt concern.
The two recent, more lucrative deals might be unique, some caution.
The Philadelphia Eagles are moving into a $355 million stadium next year, so the opportunity might have extra value, especially for Lincoln Financial, which recently moved there.
Lincoln pointed out in a news release that Philadelphia is the National Football League's third-largest television market. It is also the NFL's largest market with a naming-rights partner for its stadium, because New York and Chicago stadiums are without corporate names.
Houston had several companies vying to replace Enron on the Astros' ballpark. The victor, Minute Maid, also gains exclusive "pouring rights," meaning products made by it and its parent, Coca-Cola Co., will be the only soft drinks served there.
"It's hard to know why there's been this rather incredible sea change in the last two months, because things had been trending downward for a while," said Dennis Howard, sports marketing professor at the University of Oregon.
The latest deals were also cheered by marketers because they involved sponsors believed to have "permanence" after the recent disappointments involving less stable companies. Some lampooned Minute Maid Park as the "juice box," but Howard said it wasn't greeted as poorly as other corporate stadium names, including PSINet.
"Let them laugh," he said of Houston's new name. "That's a heck of a payday."