The Cleveland Browns NFL franchise has signed a stadium naming rights deal with Ohio-based electricity provider FirstEnergy.
Contractual details have not been revealed, however a unnamed source familiar with the deal told the Akron Beacon Journal that it is worth US$102 million over 17 years.
The deal has been on the table since the summer, when Jimmy Haslam bought the franchise from Randy Lerner for around US$1 billion, but negotiations were not concluded until the very end of 2012.
The company will install an illuminated FirstEnergy Stadium logo on the exterior of the building by April, and will also have a multitude of signage rights inside and on Browns tickets and marketing materials.
The newly-named FirstEnergy Stadium was built in 1999 at a cost of US$290 million. It has a capacity of 73,200.
Based in Akron, FirstEnergy supplies around six million customers from Chicago to the east coast of the US. The stadium itself is not a FirstEnergy client, taking its energy instead from Cleveland Public Power.
It is the first stadium naming rights deal the Browns have ever signed, but they become the 23rd NFL team to have such a deal.
“It’s great to not only have partners who are going to be financial partners, but also big fans. We believe FirstEnergy and the Cleveland Browns share the same culture, the same desire to win. We’re tremendously excited about this opportunity,” said Haslam.
“This naming rights question has been around since 1999, and in four months, that question has been answered. Decisive decisions are going to be good for the City of Cleveland. We need to position ourselves for success in this city and this marriage does that,” said Cleveland city council president Martin Sweeney.
“I’ve always been a fan of the Browns,” FirstEnergy chief executive Tony Alexander said. “When you look to guys like Chuck Jones [president of FirstEnergy Utilities] and George Smart [chairman of FirstEnergy], they are really die-hard fans. Chuck comes to every game, sits outside, loves to wear the Cleveland gear, loves it when the weather’s bad. That’s part of the history of this great franchise.”
17 years 6000000 102000000 Cleveland Browns – FirstEnergy
