Double play: Pacific Bell buys ballpark name, gains fans' goodwill

Come springtime 2000, baseball in San Francisco won't just be about the players of today and the promise of a new season.

The Giants, if all goes according to plan, will open play in a new, state-of-the-art stadium, near downtown San Francisco and equipped with all the modern amenities.

And Pacific Bell's name will be all over it.

Pacific Bell Park, as the new facility is called, already has given the carrier a wealth of positive press, starting with the sponsorship that brought an infusion of cash to the privately funded stadium and continuing through December's highly visible ground-breaking ceremony.

"Pacific Bell found itself in a position that gave it a great opportunity to play the good guy, and they've gone for it," said Lee Gordon, a principal at the San Jose-based sports marketing firm Gordon and Galindo. "This may be the first stadium name deal in which the fans view the sponsor with real affection."

The reasons for that can be traced to San Francisco's desperate attempts to build a new stadium for the team. Candlestick Park, which was to be a model for modern stadia when it was constructed in 1960, is known around the country as an inhospitable venue for fans and players alike. The stadium is next to a tall hill, which funnels evening winds off San Francisco Bay directly into the park.

While the climate on the field has been unpredictable at best, the political climate has proved downright hostile. On five occasions, voters in politically volatile San Francisco turned down plans that would use public money to build a new park. Voters in San Jose and Santa Clara County also nixed deals in the early 1990s that would have brought the team south.

In 1993, the team nearly moved to Tampa Bay before a local ownership group assembled to buy the team and keep it in San Francisco.

"Part of this purchase was contingent on a new stadium being built," said Peter Magowan, the team's president and managing partner. "Candlestick had to be replaced."

Shortly after the sale, a plan to build a baseball-only park without using public money was developed. Of the $255 million needed, $100 million came from the rights to the name.

Pacific Bell seized the opportunity early to slap its brand on the park. "They learned their lessons from other recent trends in stadium sponsorships, especially the example closest to home," said Gordon.

In 1995, when 3Com bought the rights to rename Candlestick Park after 30-plus years, people in the area were livid, he said. "People saw it as a purely commercial ploy," he said. But "in the case of Pacific Bell, the name will be with the stadium from the start. There isn't any tradition around the park's name to abandon."

The carrier also promised to make the new park a technological showcase with in-seat monitors, statistics via Internet access and other interactive features.

While the new park provides publicity for Pacific Bell with baseball fans daily, the carrier's recent acquisition by SBC Communications will test how strongly the Pacific Bell name is valued, Gordon said.

"Renaming the stadium 'SBC Park' has been kicked around, but the initial deal was so well-publicized that you could expect some fan backlash," he said. "I can see where it would be tempting to someone outside the area. But for those customers in the local market, a renaming at this point would be somewhat alienating. You'd be pitching out the goodwill already established and be forced to start from ground zero."

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