I get why teams or cities sell naming rights to stadiums.  But I've often wondered if you are a corporation purchasing the naming rights, what exactly are you getting?

Take for instance the stadium in Miami.  Born Joe Robbie stadium after the Dolphins owner who actually financed it, the name changed for awhile to Pro Player Stadium.  When that agreement ended, it was Dolphins Stadium.  Last year, the name changed yet again to "Land Shark Stadium", a Budweiser and Jimmy Buffet project.  Now, Sun Financial is purchasing the rights and for the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl, it will be known as Sun Financial Stadium.

How many people will actually refer to it as "Sun Financial Stadium" remains to be seen.

Sure, there are major benefits like signage and all the in park announcements and possibly Sun Financial ads on the team's radio broadcasts, but that's for the locals.  And, if you are a local, you probably don't even notice.

Quick.  Where do the San Francisco 49ers play?  If you are my age, you will say Candlestick Park.  If you are an Indians fan, you probably still refer to "Jacobs Field" instead of "Progressive Park."  And if you are a true White Sox fan over the age of thirty, it's still and always will be Commiskey Park.

It's one thing to be born Vince Furnier and be better known as Alice Cooper, but it's another when a stadium is born as one name and changes to another.  Do people in Oakland say "Oakland Coliseum" or " McAfee Coliseum" or "Network Associates Coliseum"? If they changed the name of Turner Field in Atlanta would the locals call it by it's new name.

Naming rights are a necessary evil in these economic times, but buyers should always beware.