What's Going Down(town)

Ballpark construction could help drive home naming-rights deal
Wizards’ affiliation with Padres club expires at end of season
Link (GFWBW)

“With its new ballpark emerging from the ground, the Fort Wayne Wizards find themselves in a better position to sell the facility’s naming rights.

Workers moved the last steel beam into place July 1, completing the frame and giving onlookers a better picture of where the Wizards will play home games beginning next year. It also should give potential stadium naming-rights sponsors a better idea of what they would be buying, said Jason Freier, CEO of Wizards owner Hardball Capital.

Meetings with potential naming-rights buyers began last summer. Freier said renderings and drawings were not enough to answer all of the questions that emerged.

“Now we’re in a position to have conversations we could start, but not finish, six months ago,” he said.

If Hardball sells the stadium’s naming rights, the city of Fort Wayne would receive 50 percent of the revenue up to $300,000 per year, after inventory and sign costs. The city would get all naming-rights revenue beyond that amount.”

“The stadium also may garner more attention for the team within Major League Baseball, Freier said. The Wizards’ contract to be an affiliate of the San Diego Padres organization has not been renewed beyond this year.

Freier said the Wizards cannot talk with other teams, nor can other teams contact them, about a change until September. But the new stadium should generate some interest from other major-league clubs about changing affiliations.

“Because that is the kind of thing where the decision is made at the end of the year, we haven’t put a lot of thought into it,” Freier said.

He said communication is good with the Padres and the staffs work well together. Geography is the only negative for the Wizards. Freier wants to determine whether fans’ interest would grow if the Wizards were affiliated with a team located in the Midwest.”

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“It also appears likely the team will not be called the Wizards when it begins play at the new stadium. More than 2,500 people submitted suggestions for a new name during a recent contest, according to a figures released by the team.

Staff members plan to narrow the list to as many as 10 potential names and then request more feedback, assistant general manager Michael Limmer said in a written statement.

A small number of those responding wanted to keep the Wizards name, Freier said, and several submitted new names that would be unique to Fort Wayne.

“There is zero chance we’ll go from Wizards to another generic name that could be attached to any city in the country,” Freier said.”