I think a big chunk of the original 70 million was goods, not cash. EDIT: I see I'm not the only one that remembers that.
I would buy season tickets for life if the HDC became sponsored by the Matsumura Fishworks, or the Tamaribuchi Heavy Manufacturing Concern. Or perhaps, a joint venture of the two.
A second naming-rights contract on a no-longer-new stadium is seldom worth as much as a contract on a yet-to-be-built one that allows your company to be the only thing it was ever called. So yeah, even though the Galaxy has gone up in name recognition since the Home Depot Center Galaxy Stadium was built, I would expect the next contract would be for less. Still, at the end of the day it's all been a pretty good bit of business for the Galaxy. Even though a good chunk of their original sale was in-kind services, it will still likely be the case that total sponsorships (there are a number of them besides Home Depot--Toyota, Adidas, Bank of America, etc) will, over the life cycle of the stadium, have paid for nearly the entire cost of construction.
Madoff Arena The Wikipedia Dome Preparation H Stadium I Know Where You Live Park [sponsored by Google™] The High Times Magazine Bowl The Bruce Arena Arena
Great opportunity for Lowe's to step in. "The good people at The Home Depot helped us build this place." "Great. We'll fix everything they effed up."
The HDC is not all it hoped to be when the first deal was signed. It was supposed to be a major track and field player ( think it only ever had one serious event) and the Pete sampras tennis academy never happened. Also, they have no major tennis tournament though they hoped for one when the complex was built. They had their eyes on the UCLA tournament but never convinced them to move. They had a third tier women's tournament for a few years but no longer. So I'd expect a smaller deal then the first time around.
True, the other sports didn't really work out that well at the HDC complex. But at the time of naming rights negotiations, was it forecast that two MLS teams would be making their home there? As completely worthless as Chivas USA are, that's still doubling the MLS fixtures played at the stadium. Probably more then enough to offset the handful of track, and third-tier boxing and tennis events that never materialized. You could also argue who would have forecast the Galaxy becoming something of a globally relevant club signing players like Beckham and Keane, and regularly being linked to guys like Lampard, Drogba and Kaka? Back when the HDC opened, the popular players on the team were Carlos Ruiz and Cobi Jones. Donovan was still a Quake, even. I think the fee will be bigger or in the same range. The Galaxy are a much bigger deal then they were in 2003.
When you say in same range, are you talking before or after LA paid Home Depot $30M for materials to build complex? If we are talking in the $40m range for 10 years then I agree(which is really what the net cost was to Home Depot) If we are talking in the $70m range for 10 years as a net cost to the advertiser, I think that is going to be on the very high end.
Well who knows... Herbalife just did a 10 year/$44M extension deal for the front of the Galaxy shirt in 2012. I would think stadium naming rights for the HDC could fetch at least that amount. Not sure what is considered more valuable, but to me it would seem a Galaxy stadium naming rights has more commercial reach then Galaxy shirt. The stadium name gets mentioned dozens of times during a broadcast, printed in media, etc. I think that gets much more exposure than what's on the front of the shirt. I think $6-7M/year doesn't sound unreasonable for the naming rights to the HDC. They are the home stadium for MLS's most high profile team, the are home to a second MLS team, they host a variety of other soccer games throughout the year. If I had to guess, they probably have close to 50 events in the stadium a year. Many of the soccer events have international exposure.
From a sponsorship standpoint having Chivas play at the HDC would not offset having top/mid tier track and tennis events at the venue. Yeah you get some media impressions with Chivas but the they are essentially going to the same crowd that the Galaxy impressions go to, MLS fans. If the tennis and track events would've materialized those impressions would've been spread out over a more diverse sporting demographic and reached more unique ears and eyeballs. Now that is what Home Depot was hoping when they signed there deal; but what they ended up with was Galaxy, Chivas, lower tier tennis and track, and ancillary events such as high school sports, rugby, X-games, and I am assuming concerts. They had to sit down and say was it worth it. I can assure you, and you probably know, that they knew a bunch of ancillary events like I mentioned before would take place at the HDC periodically but I am guessing they really wanted to hit broader markets with their impressions and having Chivas play 20 or so games a year there won't make up for what they were hoping for. However, your second point regarding the Galaxy becoming a global brand may have been able to make up for what they were hoping to hit is intriguing; as the impressions would be spread around amongst those who did they not expect to hit like non-MLS and non-US soccer fans and those paying attention because of the small celebrity factor. This is way more relevant from a marketing/sponsorship aspect than having another MLS team call the place home.
Just going off gut feeling, I'd say that Herbalife being on every single Gals jersey sold from here to Hanoi is probably more important than The Home Depot getting an occasional mention on TV. However, I don't really have the wherewithal to find definitive proof either way.