naming rights, new jersey, advertising, brooklyn, izod, marketing, nba, nets

Hey Nets Fans, Welcome To The Izod Arena?

The New Jersey Nets have located their perfect sponsor after what was said to be a rigorous search. Izod!

From the NYT:

Izod will pay $1.4 million a year in cash for the first two years of the five-year agreement, which will be cut to $750,000 annually in 2009 when the Nets are expected to move to Brooklyn.

The Nets, who made the deal through their naming rights division as the agent for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, focused largely on finding a fashion company as the sponsor. The choice was from among the Izod division of Phillips-Van Heusen, Rocawear and Southpole, all clothing retailers.

In addition to the cash, Izod will provide marketing valued at $600,000 a year and $100,000 annually in uniforms for arena workers. Phillips Van-Heusen will also open five stores in the Xanadu development that is rising in the Meadowlands.

Hey, polo shirts are cute.

Fashionable New Name for Arena [NYT]

10:47 AM on Fri Oct 5 2007
By Meg Marco
1,423 views
11 comments

Comments

rmz at 10:59 AM on 10/05/07
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Somehow I don't think New Jersey basketball fans are the typical demographic for preppie polo shirts, but what do I know? :3
HeyThereKiller at 11:01 AM on 10/05/07
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Izod Arena will be a state of the art sports center featuring several full sized retail stores including Marshalls, TJ Maxx, and Marshalls!
Falconfire at 11:08 AM on 10/05/07
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@rmz: New Jersey fans honestly dont care anymore. The Nets turned their back on NJ pretty much, and just about everyone I know who was a fan, have now turned their back on the Nets.

NY can have them.
CliveDobbs at 11:30 AM on 10/05/07
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@HeyThereKiller:

Given that it'll be part of Frank Gehry's vomitorium at Atlantic Center, which ALREADY includes a Marshalls and a Burlington Coat Factory (among others), this is closer to the truth than you realize.

As someone who lives about 4 blocks away from where they're putting the arena, though, I'm kinda embarassed. What, Generra couldn't pony up the cash to match their offer?
suburbancowboy at 11:59 AM on 10/05/07
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I absolutely hate having to plug a company to tell people where I am going to an event.

I'm not going to the Paramount Theater, I am now going to the WAMU theater at Madison Square Garden.

I have an idea. The U.S. Tennis Center which for some reason is named after Louis Armstrong who as far as I know wasn't a Tennis player, should be called the Izod Tennis Center, and they can name the Meadowlands after Louis Armstrong.
kidwei at 11:59 AM on 10/05/07
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wow.. as a nets fan, i'm ashamed. that's a pretty smalltime naming sponsor. compare that to citigroup, which is sponsoring the mets' new citifield. they're paying something like $20M per year for the naming rights. Might as well name it the Joe's Crab Shack arena.
bravo369 at 02:32 PM on 10/05/07
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@Falconfire: I wouldn't group all nets fans together. I'm a nets fan and I actually like the Brooklyn move. NJ wasn't doing anything to support the nets/devils. It wasn't until after the Nets were bought and announced their move that NJ announced plans for Devils arena in Newark and for the Xanadu project in the meadowlands. If moving to Brooklyn attracts fans, revenue and bigtime players then i'm all for that
Krycek at 03:33 PM on 10/05/07
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How long will it be before North Dakota will be called amazon.com state, Illinois will be State Bank of America, New York will be Macy's York and so on... it's just a matter of time. Or on a larger scale, to steal a line from Fight Club... Planet Starbucks.
cde at 06:58 PM on 10/05/07
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Shit, 2.1 million a year is all you need to own the name of a major sports club?
MYarms at 04:56 PM on 10/08/07
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I don't know what is a bigger shock for me: the fact that the Nets' arena is going to be sponsored by Izod or the fact that they're going to be moving to Brooklyn in 2009.
Zooomabooma at 09:48 AM on 11/06/07
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The idiocy of this move is lost on most Americans. Corporate naming of sports and music venues in the U.S. is now commonplace... and so is the renaming, the re-renaming and even the re-re-renaming. We live in such a great country but this crap helps make us a joke. It's not specifically something non-Americans can point to and laugh at, but it contributes to the overall suck-factor of America. I love this country but this naming crap needs to end. Why was Garden State Arts Center and Brendan Byrne Arena (remember those names?!) good enough for many years but now arenas need a new corporate name every few years? I don't know what the current names are but for awhile in the U.S. there were four or five music venues ALL with the name Verizon Wireless. WHAT?!? Remember also when a name was unique?! Don't get AT&T Park in San Francisco (formerly SBC Park, formerly Pacific Bell Park) confused with AT&T Arena (formerly the SBC Center) in San Antonio. The Pepsi Center is in Denver but the Pepsi Arena (formerly Knickerbocker Arena) was in Albany, New York... but no fear, now it's the Times Union Center. The Miami Heat plays in the American Airlines Arena but if they're in Dallas to play the Mavericks, they'll almost be home 'cause that venue is the American Airlines Center. HOLY COW!

As a NY Mets fan, I'm already wondering what the NEXT name of their new stadium will be. Same with the arena for the NJ Devils. It's only a matter of time.