Tom Landry Stadium---You can make it happen

[silverbear]

You know... now that you mention it... who really DOES care about Commander fans?

Roughly the same number of people who care about CanadianCowboyFan...

 

[silverbear]

On reflection, it occurs to me that telling CCF off only gets us off-track, so I'm just gonna ignore his negativity from now on... I encourage y'all to do the same... let him carp, if he must, and let's keep focused on gettin' this thing off the ground...

 

[TNCowboy]

A million signatures won't affect Jones. He might get $1B in naming rights. Maybe the field or lockerroom or some such will be named after TL.

 

[WoodysGirl]

Sorry, that's an inconsistent stance-- if putting Tom Landry's name on the new stadium is "living in the past", then so is the Ring of Honor...

So now, we know that you're just playing the contrarian... all that's left is for you to figure out that your opinion is no longer needed, or welcome, in this thread...

Like I said, if you don't wanna take part, that's fine... but kindly stop trying to tell us what we shouldn't do, because frankly, I don't CARE what you think... you are cordially invited to butt the F out...

CCF has as much right to post his opinion on this board and in this thread as you do. Just because you don't like his opinion doesn't give you the right to tell him he can't voice his.

I realize you have alot of passion for this effort and I'm sure CajunCowboy appreciates all your support, but I don't think there's any need to go there in defense of the petition.

JMO, of course.

 

[DragonCowboy]

contrarian

Was this on your word of the day calendar?

 

[lspain1]

I would personally be delighted if the stadium were named after Tom Landry. However, I'm not sure how this fits into the naming rights that are going to make Jerry a bundle. Even if Jerry were sentimental over Landry...which he isn't, we're talkin' a boatload of money here and no one has ever accused our owner of leavin' a buck on the table. I wish you folks luck....because I think you're gonna need it....along with a few hundred million.

 

[CowboyJeff]

No, I won't trust you, because I'm dead morally certain you're wrong about that... Jones would have little trouble convincing bidders to incorporate Landry's name into the official name of the field...

Those bidding for the naming rights are clearly targeting football fans in general and Cowboys fans in particular, so honoring a Hall of Fame coach who also had a reputation as a Hall of Fame human being would be good business for them...

So long as their name was still featured prominently, of course...

you've obviously never worked with Jerry Jones.

 

[CowboyJeff]

Note: this is a nearly five-year old article -

Naming stadium for Unitas costly, not unprecedented

Bengals, Browns chose to shun corporate millions
By Jon Morgan
Sun Staff

Originally published September 17, 2002

Naming Baltimore's football stadium in honor of the late John Unitas would be costly to the Ravens, but a handful of other teams have found a way to make similar gestures.

Since the death of Unitas on Wednesday of a heart attack, many fans have suggested renaming Ravens Stadium for him. An online petition asking that the building be renamed Johnny Unitas Memorial Stadium has attracted more than 47,000 signatures.

The death of the former Colts quarterback prompted an outpouring of tributes. A memorial service at 9:15 a.m. will precede a funeral Mass at 10 a.m. today at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, 5200 N. Charles St. Cardinal William H. Keeler will officiate at the Mass. Both services are open to the public.

The team's owners declined to discuss the stadium's name, saying it is too soon after Unitas' death. "We just don't want to discuss it right now," Ravens spokesman Kevin Byrne said yesterday. The Ravens have said they need revenue from a naming sponsor to field a competitive team.

Selling the name of a stadium to a corporate sponsor has become commonplace in sports. Deals can attract upward of $5 million a year.

But a few teams have avoided commercialization and experts say the Ravens - whose previous naming rights sponsor, PSINet Inc., went bankrupt - could do the same.

When Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown obtained the rights to name his team's new stadium, he opted to honor his father, the founder of the franchise.The team has played in Paul Brown Stadium since it opened in 2000.

"Naming rights were explored but it was the strong sentiment of our owner that unless there was something that was too good to believe he preferred not to go the corporate naming route," said Bengals spokesman Jack Brennan.

The rights were valued at $16.7 million in the team's 30-year lease. Its terms required a percentage of that value to be paid to Hamilton County. The Bengals paid $5 million to the county and waived the potential income, according to The Dayton Daily News.

So far the lost revenue hasn't hampered the team's finances, Brennan said. "Every team pays about the same for players with the salary cap," he said.

"There are so many inputs and outputs that go into forming the budget of our team, they just worked it into the budget and whatever it cost us was, in the opinion of management here, worth it," he said.

The names of a few other new facilities remain ad-free. Officials considered but rejected seeking a corporate sponsor for the rebuilt Georgia Dome. In Oregon, the Rose Garden is named for the region's bountiful foliage, while the arena's gates, or "totems," carry the name of paying sponsors.

After criticism following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Chicago Bears agreed not to jettison the name of Soldier Field. The building is undergoing a massive renovation.

The Cleveland Browns also have avoided commercializing their field's name. The team, an expansion franchise sold to banker Al Lerner after the original one relocated to Baltimore in 1995, obtained the right to sell the stadium's name in its lease. But Lerner opted not to, after fans objected. The team has played at Cleveland Browns Stadium since it opened in 1999.

"It is from our owner directly. He would prefer to keep the tradition of the community and the NFL," Browns spokesman Nathan Boudreaux said.

Instead, the team sold the names of the stadium's four tower-like gates. Fans enter and leave through the Cleveland Clinic Sports Health Gate, the National City Gate, Steris Gate or the First Energy Gate.

"The best public relations move the Ravens could make after going through the PSINet debacle is to follow the Cleveland Browns model," said Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based sports consultant.

He estimates that the Browns' "gate sponsorships" have paid half to two-thirds of what a full-fledged stadium naming deal would have paid.

Naming rights deals are difficult to value. Figures often include benefits to the sponsor beyond a name on the building. The PSINet deal, struck in 1999, was known as a "presenting sponsorship."

The Internet services firm paid $9.25 million the first year and was scheduled to make annual payments of $2.55 million, to be adjusted for inflation, over the next 19 years, according to documents filed with federal regulators.

In exchange for its payments, PSINet received premier skyboxes, the right to call itself an official Ravens sponsor, commercial time on pre-game shows, ads in game programs and other benefits.

The Maryland Stadium Authority, which sold the team the naming rights for $10 million, estimated in 1999 the naming portion was worth $1 million a year.

The Ravens agreed earlier this year to pay PSINet creditors $5.9 million to reclaim the rights to the stadium name. The company is being liquidated.

Ganis, who has negotiated naming rights deals, said a company would probably pay $2 million to $3 million a year for the name itself. Ganis said a loss of $3 million a year would not be catastrophic, but neither would it be insignificant.

"It could be a very expensive piece of philanthropy," he said.

Documents the Ravens prepared when they were sold in 2000 and obtained by The Sun projected revenues of $137 million this year.

Thomas Chema, a partner with the law firm of Arter & Hadden in Cleveland, said the team could protect its revenue stream while honoring Unitas.

"There are a number of ways to skin that cat," said Chema, who was executive director of the public agency that built Jacobs Field for the Indians and Gund Arena for the Cavaliers.

Though unlikely, it is possible a consortium of local corporations would come forward and agree to compensate the Ravens for calling the stadium "Unitas Field," he said. "I don't see why that couldn't happen," he said.

The Ravens could even sell the rights for $1 a year to a charitable foundation that would agree to name the building for Unitas. The difference between the market value and the $1 payment may be considered a donation for the Ravens, saving money on taxes, Chema said.

Kevin Lovitt, an executive at sports marketing giant IMG, in Charlotte, N.C., said the Ravens have included the revenues from a naming rights deal in their financial projections. Going without would leave a hole in the books.

"That's $5 million they wouldn't have to afford players," Lovitt said.

In Cleveland, none of the three major-league teams play in stadiums with corporate names. The owners of the baseball and basketball teams agreed in the late 1980s to contribute $14 million over 20 years toward construction of the facilities to honor their family names.

Rick Burton, director of the Warsaw Center for Sports Administration at the University of Oregon, pointed to Denver, where the Broncos' desire for revenues was balanced with the city's emotional attachment to the old Mile High Stadium when a replacement opened last year.

The result: Invesco Field at Mile High.

Of course, a sponsor is going to want a discount if it has to share its name.

"Because the state and the city picked up a lot of the cost of that building, if there is any team that could afford to do that it would be the Ravens," Burton said.

The Ravens have one of the most lucrative stadium arrangements in sports. The building cost $229 million to construct, not including the $100 million spent to acquire and clear the land that sits under it and the adjacent Oriole Park. Both were financed largely through bonds backed by the state lottery.

The Ravens' contribution was disputed in an arbitration brought by the Orioles. The arbitrators found it was $24 million. The stadium authority and Ravens say it was $34 million.

LINK

How much money did owner Mike Brown personally invest to build their new stadium? Jerry is going to want his millions of investment money back.

 

[TNCowboy]

I hope it isn't something cornball like "Tom Landry Field at Texaco Stadium". He should go one way or the other. And no one should blame Jones when he takes the $.

 

[ThreeSportStar80]

I hope it isn't something cornball like "Tom Landry Field at Texaco Stadium". He should go one way or the other. And no one should blame Jones when he takes the $.

Exactly, the NFL is business first no matter what's said in front of the TV cameras. My original comments got deleted by some lame people on the website for just pointing out the truth...

 

[notherbob]

I think Jerry will honor Landry and Schramm, and others, in some ways in the new stadium, but unless the fans are willing to get together and outbid the commercial bidders, I doubt they'll have much luck with Jerry on naming the stadium.

Just a hunch.

 

[adamknite]

I have set up an online petition to try and get Jerry Jones to Consider naming the new stadium Tom Landry Stadium.

We have over 9,000 users here.

I would like to keep it active til Thanksgiving and I will then FedEx the petition to him. PLease read the petition and sign it.

Landry desrves this honor just as Curly Lambeau did for the Packers and Paul Brown for the Bengals.

Together, Cowboy Nation can get it done.

Here's the link.

http://www.petitiononline.com/Landry/petition.html

Thanks everyone. :starspin :starspin :starspin

Signed #294

 

[CowboyJeff]

I think Jerry will honor Landry and Schramm, and others, in some ways in the new stadium, but unless the fans are willing to get together and outbid the commercial bidders, I doubt they'll have much luck with Jerry on naming the stadium.

Just a hunch.

 

[Doomsday101]

I think Jerry will honor Landry and Schramm, and others, in some ways in the new stadium, but unless the fans are willing to get together and outbid the commercial bidders, I doubt they'll have much luck with Jerry on naming the stadium.

Just a hunch.

I agree. Coach Landry will always represent what I find good in sports but I also understand this is business and a project of this size and cost will require selling of the naming rights and I can't fault Jerry on that.

 

[tomson75]

Perhaps some of you people should reread the whole thread.

Get back to us when your comprehension level expands, and you've finally gotten the point. We'll be waiting.

 

[Doomsday101]

Perhaps some of you people should reread the whole thread.

Get back to us when your comprehension level expands, and you've finally gotten the point. We'll be waiting.

You mean see things the way you do?

 

[tomson75]

You mean see things the way you do?

No, I mean reread the thread.

Some of you have missed the point. Completely.

...but feel free to be yourself, I'm used to it by now.

 

[Cajuncowboy]

Perhaps some of you people should reread the whole thread.

Get back to us when your comprehension level expands, and you've finally gotten the point. We'll be waiting.

Yeah, I really don't get the whole opposition to this from some "fans". This is not like we are trying to change the World here. We just want Jerry to know our feelings. We all understand that Jerry is perfectly within his rights to name the stadium anything he wants. As a matter of fact, even if we get 50,000 names on the petition it still doesn't preclude him from doing anything.

The point of this whole project is to do three things:

1: Honor the guy who actually laid the foundation for the franchise

2: Maybe make an impression on Jerry in hopes that he might would understand OUR, THE FANS, feelings regarding the stadium and the name

3: Actually have him name the stadium after Coach Landry

As the originator of the petition, I will not be upset if he doesn't name the stadium after Coach Landry because I am for free enterprise and he owns it and he should do what he wants. But he should also be aware of the desires of his market, us, the fans.

I don't think the ones who are poo-pooing this whole thing have the right perspective on this. If they don't want to sign the petition, then don't. But we do have the right to sign it if we wish. Some people need to get off their high horse and stop acting like they are the ones who have all the answers, because if they did, the would own the Cowboys.

 

[Cajuncowboy]

300 SIGS and going strong! You guys are great!

 

[Doomsday101]

No, I mean reread the thread.

Some of you have missed the point. Completely.

...but feel free to be yourself, I'm used to it by now.

Jones is looking at around 1 Billion dollars for naming rights and I doubt he is going to put stipulations on any company who gets the naming rights nor should he.