Monday, September 2, 2013

What is Tim Horton's Paying for Naming Rights For the New Ticats Stadium? 2015 Grey Cup in Hamilton?

I'm curious what Tim Horton's is paying for naming rights for the new stadium. I found this article from CHML's Ted Michaels, with the following info:

"While the actual total of the agreement was not publicized, sources tell Inside the CFL that the naming rights were purchased for between $10 million and $15 million." 

The article says it is a ten year deal, so the price is between $ 1 million and 1.5 million per year. That's significantly less than the $2.7 million per year that BMO paid for BMO Field in Toronto, which I discussed in this earlier post.

From that post "Obviously there's a lot of visibility on the Gardner Expressway from cars, but Toronto FC games currently receive miniscule television ratings compared to CFL games and usually the games involve an American opponent. For Scotiabank Place, the arena of the Ottawa Senators, Scotiabank paid $21 million over 15 years. Is $10 million over 10 years possible for a rebuilt stadium?"

Interesting that the Cats could be getting more money than the Senators stadium. I do wonder what the new price for BMO stadium will be when the contract comes up again. As I said, high value for the location, but not a lot of television visibility.

The Ticats will eventually host the Grey Cup at their stadium, sooner than later and perhaps as early as 2015 (mentioned in this 2010 article from Perry Lefko). That has to have some real monetary value for Tim Horton's, as does the potential that the Cats could host it again before the ten year deal is up (perhaps Grey Cup 2023). Of course Hamilton last hosted the Grey Cup in 1996 and 1972 before that and the 1996 wasn't particularly successful. The new modern Grey Cup is usually sold out now independent of the city, so Hamilton hosting it again shouldn't be a problem (and with Bob Young's marketing muscle it could be impressive).

The question is how many temporary fans can be shoehorned in to watch the game. I've never really gotten a firm number on that, however one assumes that in the design that is accounted for. We'll see.

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