DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Regional bank BBVA Compass on Wednesday became the latest
financial firm to slap its name on a big-league sports stadium,
signing a deal for the rights to the Houston Dynamo's new
arena.
BBVA Compass, a subsidiary of Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya
Argentaria S.A.(BBVA), signed an agreement reportedly worth $20
million over 10 years for the 22,000-seat stadium, set to open on
May 12.
The deal isn't company's only foray into soccer--its parent is
the title sponsor of Spain's La Liga, one of the world's top soccer
leagues, home of Real Madrid and Barcelona.
It is the second naming deal involving a bank in Major League
Soccer; Bank of Montreal (BMO) sponsors BMO Field, home of Toronto
FC.
Nor is it the first time a bank has sponsored a major U.S.
sports stadium. Perhaps the most prominent deal is Citigroup Inc.'s
(C) naming of the New York Mets' ballpark, part of a partnership
reportedly worth $20 million a year.
A recent study found that Citi Field enjoyed roughly $10 million
of news media exposure in 2011, a figure that doesn't include game
broadcast exposure or on-site marketing.
Though BBVA Compass' parent entity is among the large Spanish
banks currently caught in the turmoil in Europe, and has been told
by regulators to raise billions of dollars, the U.S. entity has
seen results grow with Texas proving a strong market for lending.
BBVA Compass' net income rose 18% in the third quarter from the
prior year.
Another financial services firm, MetLife Inc. (MET), recently
signed its own naming deal, a 25-year partnership for the
Meadowlands stadium, home of the National Football League's New
York Giants and New York Jets. That deal was reportedly worth as
much as $20 million a year.
A Major League Soccer team in Houston isn't the same as a
professional football or baseball team in the country's biggest
media market, a fact reflected in the different deal values. But
BBVA Compass has a sizeable presence in Texas--it is the state's
fifth-largest bank, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp.--and the Dynamo is one of MLS's more successful teams, having
won two championships in the past six years and losing to the Los
Angeles Galaxy in this year's MLS Cup Final.
Wednesday's agreement is the fourth major stadium naming deal in
Houston. Reliant Energy sponsors the NFL's Houston Texans' home and
pays about $10 million a year, according to sponsor research firm
IEG. The deal for Minute Maid Park, home of baseball's Houston
Astros, is worth about $6 million, while Toyota Motor Corp. (TM)
pays $5 million for the Toyota Center of the National Basketball
Association's Houston Rockets.
"These days $2 million is at the low end of the scale [for a
stadium deal]," said Jim Andrews, senior vice president at IEG.
Andrews noted that the Dynamo's BBVA agreement is just the
latest in a busy year for stadium naming deals. Aside from MetLife
Stadium, four deals involving major league teams have been
announced in 2011, according to IEG, while Farmers Insurance agreed
to sponsor the proposed NFL-ready stadium in Los Angeles, and High
Point Solutions signed up to sponsor Rutgers University's football
stadium.
The thawing in the market comes after what Andrews said was a
virtually barren two- to three-year period for stadium deals as
companies retrenched in the face of the financial crisis and the
subsequent recession.
-Sam Mamudi; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com
--David Benoit contributed to this article.