Hartford Business Journal

16 Hartford Business Journal • March 9, 2020 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Joe Cooper jcooper@hartfordbusiness.com I n an effort to offset steep startup costs, the one-year- old Hartford Athletic soccer club is looking to monetize its last untapped revenue source: Dillon Stadium. The Division II professional soccer franchise, part of the United Soc- cer League (USL), is shopping the naming rights of the newly revital- ized, 5,500-seat stadium to poten- tial sponsors as it works to achieve profitability by 2022. Team owner Hartford Sports Group, led by chairman and co- founder Bruce Mandell, secured fu- ture revenue generated by stadium naming rights in a 2018 agreement with the city of Hartford and quasi- public Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA), which oversees stadium operations. A consultancy that specializes in calculating sponsorship opportunities recently valued the stadium's naming rights at $432,000 a year. That level of annual funding would be a major haul for the start- up franchise, which fell shy of its at- tendance goals during its inaugural season and generates a third of its revenue from sponsorships, accord- ing to Mandell, who is also CEO and owner of Newington direct-mail company Data-Mail Inc. A potential naming-rights deal, which Mandell hopes to ink by year- end, is also crucial because the fran- chise has forecasted that revenue in future budgets. "It needs to get done, this is built into our plan," he said in a recent in- terview. "It's extremely significant in terms of building stability into the operation side of a club. It's the kind of boost that allows you to do more for your fans, improve the overall experience and add to the stadium." Hartford Sports Group hired glob- al consultancy IEG to estimate the value of Dillon's and other nearby stadiums' naming rights. As part of its analysis, IEG val- ued the naming rights for Dunkin' Donuts Park and XL Center at $500,000 each, but those two ven- ues provide additional seating and host more ticketed events per year. (The true value of naming-rights deals for the XL Center, sponsored by Bermuda-based insurer XL Catlin, and Dunkin' Donuts Park, supported by Mass.-based restaurant chain Dunkin', are not publicly disclosed.) Compared to other USL sta- diums, the fair market value of Dillon's naming rights is estimated slightly below the league average of $462,000. However, if you remove the outlier valuation for a 10,000- seat stadium in Fresno, Calif., which has its naming rights valued at $1.1 million, Dillon's stadium sponsor- ship opportunity is 22% higher than league average. There are currently only 10 USL teams, or about a quarter of the league, that are the primary tenant of a sta- dium with a naming-rights sponsor. The Athletic's founding spon- sors — including Trinity Health of New England, Aetna, The Hartford, Cigna, LAZ Parking and Stanley Black & Decker — are getting the first opportunity to bid on Dillon's naming rights, Mandell said. Those companies already gener- ate more than $1 million a year for the Athletic, and have each renewed their commitments for 2020, Man- dell said. But the club, he said, is also wel- coming small and midsize sponsors as well. "In many ways sponsors are the key to bringing professional soccer and Dillon Stadium up as a commu- nity asset," Mandell said. Dillon naming rights package Nationally, stadium naming rights is big business. Dozens of big-league venues home to NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB tenants reap hundreds of mil- lions of dollars from naming-rights deals that span decades. Although the Athletic is a second- tier professional sports franchise, a naming-rights deal for Dillon could be lucrative because it's a historic venue that hosts a variety of com- munity events beyond the USL season, Mandell said. Dillon, host over the years to rock concerts by The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, Kiss and The Beach Boys, will house at least 17 home matches for the Athletic and another 80-plus community events in 2020. Athletic games will also broadcast live on WTNH News 8/MyTV9 and on sub- scription service ESPN+. The stadium, built in 1935 and overhauled last year for roughly $14 million, will also offer prime signage viewable from Interstate 91 and the Colt Gateway on Huyshope Avenue. A naming-rights partner will also be able to access potentially hun- dreds of sponsorship assets includ- ing media inclusion, ticket signage and field and print advertisements. They could also mark their presence on a video scoreboard the club plans to add for the 2021 season, in addi- tion to other branding opportunities Brand Value Hartford Athletic eyeing Dillon Stadium naming-rights deal as key to future profitability The estimated naming-rights value of Northeast stadiums and arenas Stadium Location Leagues hosted Annual Fee DCU Center Worcester, MA ECHL/NAL $1.1M XL Center Hartford AHL/NCAA $500K Dunkin' Donuts Park Hartford MILB $500K Dillon Stadium Hartford USL $432K Dunkin' Donuts Center Providence, RI AHL/NCAA $425K Webster Bank Arena Bridgeport AHL/NCAA $350K MassMutual Center Springfield, MS AHL/NCAA $330K Carrier Dome Syracuse, NY NCAA $275K SEFCU Arena Albany, NY NCAA $275K Average: $469K Source: IEG The Hartford Athletic soccer club is looking for a naming-rights sponsor to rename Dillon Stadium. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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