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Arrowhead Stadium Brought to you by… Ovaltine

A few weeks ago, I saw a story that Arrowhead Stadium was considering selling the naming rights of the stadium to the highest corporate bidder. There has been a lot of resistance to the initiative. Our friends at Arrowhead Pride don’t like it. Neither do the good people at Arrowhead Addict. My response is very different. I say, “It’s about time!”

I know what you’re thinking. Jon is nothing but a sell-out. He doesn’t care about the tradition of the Chiefs. He would change their team colors to plaid and pink the first chance that he gets. Don’t get me wrong. It absolutely pains me to think that Arrowhead won’t be Arrowhead tomorrow. But there comes a point when tradition overrides common sense, and common sense tells me that the Chiefs are already a small market team with a fraction of the spending power of big market teams and they cannot afford to leave that much money on the table. Clinging to the Arrowhead name is costing the team millions of dollars of potential annual revenue every single year.Ryan stated in his earlier post that he doesn’t understand why everyone is so emotional over the thought of Yankee Stadium getting torn down. As a lifelong Yankee fan (yes, even when they sucked), I entirely disagree with that comment. It’s going to be emotional watching the very last game played at the original Yankee Stadium. The stadium is hallowed ground; it’s the “House that Ruth Built”; it is arguably the most historically significant baseball stadium in America. The unfortunate reality is that while the stadium carries a tradition, it’s also falling apart. The Yankees have reached that unfortunate break-even point where preserving history is no longer worth the hassle and the watered-down fan experience. In other words, Yankee Stadium… grew old.

Such is the case with Arrowhead Stadium. The stadium was named at a time when it was uncommon for stadiums to sell their souls to corporations. That unwritten rule has since changed and, as such, the Chiefs’ decision to cling to a non-corporate stadium name… grew old. Tradition is great and it’s important, but the team is there to win football games, not to serve as a historical landmark. If losing the Arrowhead name contributes to improved resources for the Chiefs to field a more competitive team or perhaps to improve the fan experience, why wouldn’t they cash in on it?

Due to revenue sharing and competitive balance, there is only so far that a dollar can be stretched in KC. It would not surprise me if some of those dollars ended up directly in some of the higher-ups’ pockets. But it is very difficult to imagine that a significant chunk of extra money wouldn’t be put to good use, whether it’s through hiring more and better assistant coaches (coaching staffs are still uncapped), investing in better training and weight facilities, or maybe even shaving a few extra dollars off of the outrageously high ticket and parking fees.

Granted, what a team should do and what a team can do are entirely different things. There aren’t a whole lot of major corporate players who would bid on naming rights in Kansas City, nor is it likely that the Chiefs could raise anything even remotely close to the $20 million per year sponsorship price that Dallas is currently charging, but every dollar counts. And let’s be real here. The fans will always refer to the stadium as Arrowhead, regardless of what the broadcasters are required to say. Progressive Field is still referred to as “the Jake” in Cleveland. In other situations, fans have quickly adapted to a name change. You will never hear fans refer to “Citizen’s Bank Park” as “the Vet” or AT&T Field as “Candlestick Park.” Quite frankly, nobody cares anymore. Like any change in tradition, people complain and then quickly get over it.

I sense that Chiefs’ fans will move on and I certainly hope that they will still cling to the Arrowhead name even if it’s not the stadium’s official name. I will certainly never stop referring to the stadium as “Arrowhead Stadium.” But unfortunately, stadium naming rights have no longer become a choice, but a requirement for a team to compete. The Chiefs can choose to not sell out, but the plain and simple reality is that the Chiefs’ attachment to tradition is leaving easy money on the table that their competitors are raising in droves.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 9:09 pm and is filed under arrowhead stadium, Analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.