The Giants and Jets opened their new stadium in 2010, but they’ve yet to strike a deal for the application of a corporate title to the venue. The league’s decision to award a Super Bowl to the billion-dollar structure was expected to increase the value of an endorsement deal. Still, more than a year after the NFL opted to stage a Super Bowl in an open-air venue at a time when the air will possibly be full of frozen water, no agreement has been reached.
That could be changing soon. Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Journal reports that the Jets and Giants are getting closer to selling the rights, and that a new name could be applied to the New Meadowlands Stadium before the start of the 2011 season.
If, of course, there even is a 2011 season.
Given that the stadium hosts 20 NFL games per year and that it’s situated in the New York/New Jersey market, look for the total value of the deal to be far more significant than the usual naming-rights arrangements. That said, the market for such contracts has softened considerably since the recession, prompting owners like Jerry Jones to simply decide not to sell the naming rights until, say, $20 million or more per year can be harvested for essentially nothing.
