Welcome to Dodger Stadium! Come see the pitchers warm up in the Red Bull Bullpen. Sit in the Bicycle Playing Cards top deck! Leave your car in the Hertz garage for preferred parking, or the Avis lot, where they try harder to find you a spot.
Dodger Stadium will still be called Dodger Stadium in the years ahead, but much of the rest of the place is now available to be renamed -- for a price -- by corporate sponsors willing to add their brands to familiar features of Chavez Ravine.
Available canvases include the bullpens, dugouts, base lines, outfield pavilions, parking gates, press box, Stadium Club, luxury suites and clubhouse. The team's newly adopted spring training facilities in Arizona are also up for grabs.
The Dodgers said Monday that they had formed a partnership with the William Morris Agency of Beverly Hills to identify opportunities to rename parts of the stadium and its planned $500-million addition. The expansion is intended to transform the ballpark into a year-round destination for dining, shopping and recreation -- and could also serve up numerous branding opportunities.
Like many other sports and entertainment businesses, the Dodgers are turning to advertisers to help defray their costs.
"Everybody is seeking corporate relationships," said Jim Wiatt, chairman of William Morris. "It's expensive to keep competitive and have the best facilities."
No sponsors have yet been named, but they will be courted -- and vigorously, no doubt.
It was not immediately clear how much the naming rights to various parts of the stadium and grounds might be worth -- or whether the team's success or failure in the current National League playoffs would be a factor.
The Dodgers trail the Philadelphia Phillies three games to one in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series after a 7-5 loss in Game 4 Monday night at Dodger Stadium.
With player salaries soaring and all the obvious sources of revenue already being tapped, sports franchises are scrambling to squeeze revenue from their ballparks, stadiums and arenas -- even from such iconic destinations as Dodger Stadium and the new Yankee Stadium that will open next spring in New York.
That push will continue, sports marketers say, even during the current economic turmoil.
