The Denver Broncos are set to remove Sports Authority signage from their home stadium, and will continue to search for a new naming rights partner.
During the year 2016, the Broncos ended their sponsorship deal with the bankrupt Sports Authority and took over the remainder of the Metropolitan Football Stadium District’s naming rights agreement for Sports Authority Field at Mile High. While the team has since been on the search for a new naming rights partner, the Sports Authority signage has remained on the facility.
The Broncos are now confirming that Sports Authority signage will be removed from the venue soon, with team president and CEO Joe Ellis stating on Tuesday that the process could begin within the next 10 days. More from The Denver Post:
“I actually spoke with Jay Roberts this morning. He’s our stadium general manager,” Ellis said. “We are in the process of having engineers looking at (our stadium). We are going to take the signs down. All of the exterior signage will come down, starting in about a week or 10 days. The name needs to remain in place for a while because we have some place-holder events both inside the building and then in the bowl itself — some concerts and stuff. There is just some connection to that name whether it’s through ticketing, event management or things like that.”
The Broncos had originally hoped to secure a new naming rights partner for the stadium for the start of the 2017 season. As the Broncos enter another offseason, Ellis is unwilling to make promises about finding a new partnering brand for the start of the 2018 season, but he anticipates a different look for the Broncos’ stadium by then.
“I suspect by the start of the season we’ll either have a placeholder name or a name on the building that involves a corporation supporting that name,” Ellis said. “That is an important part to our capital funding moving forward. I’ve talked … at length about some of the needs there, and they are extensive. We have, I think, 13 seasons left on our lease, and I’d like to wrap up the naming rights deal and then extend that because the Broncos aren’t going anywhere.”
The Broncos are hoping that revenue from a new naming rights sale could help to fund improvements and maintenance at the facility. The stadium has had multiple names since its opening, as it debuted as Invesco Field at Mile High in 2001, with Sports Authority securing its naming rights agreement in 2011.
Image courtesy of the Denver Broncos.
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