Ameriquest Field in Arlington, Rangers have sold out

[vex]

Friday, May 7, 2004


Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Texas -- Texas Rangers fans won't be hearing about The Ballpark in Arlington much longer because the team's home is reportedly getting a new name.




The venue is Ameriquest Field in Arlington, carrying the name of Ameriquest Mortgage Corp. after the Rangers sold renaming rights to the subsidiary of Ameriquest Capital Corp.



The deal, according to published reports Friday, was expected to be for 30 years and bring in about $75 million.



More details were expected to be released at a news conference the Rangers scheduled for noon Friday.



"All I can say is that we will have a press conference today to announce a major sponsorship agreement," Rangers vice president John Blake told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Friday's editions.



The baseball team has been negotiating with the California-based lender since at least February.



The agreement is "like the worst-kept secret in the sports world," David Carter, a principal in Los Angeles' Sports Business Group, told The Dallas Morning News.



Rangers owner Tom Hicks had reportedly been trying to find a company that would purchase naming rights for The Ballpark since his Southwest Sports Group bought the team, plus land near the stadium, for $250 million in 1998.



The previous Rangers ownership group, headed by George W. Bush and Rusty Rose, negotiated the right to sell the name of the ballpark when the organization and the city of Arlington teamed up to build the stadium.



A subprime lending company, Ameriquest Mortgage, has 17 banking sites in Texas, including seven in the Dallas area.



So how about a name more fitting for a team in the Lone Star State?



"It could be worse. He's [Hicks] got to make money somewhere," said Rangers fan Sue Heath of Oak Lawn. "I'm surprised he didn't get somebody bigger, more Texan."



Ameriquest, which has been using Major League Baseball increasingly as a marketing vehicle, is sponsoring voting for this year's All-Star Game in stadiums and online.


hxxp://sports.espn.go.com/espn/sportsbusiness/news/story?id=1796968

[Shkspr]

Hey, they could use that cash to go after some big name in free agency...maybe a shortstop or something.

[fantastic flying froggies]

Despite all the outcry about the spiderman bases, I find this naming the stadium thing much more worrying...

[CamEdwards]

I think it should be "The Big Texan Ballpark", or maybe "KT's Adult Video Barn and Ballpark".

[Cecil Fielder]

the stadium naming thing has been going on for awhile now... what's to worry about it? it's just a damn name... call it whatever the hell you want.

personally, for $75 million over 30 years I'd change the name of anything i owned.

[fantastic flying froggies]

Originally Posted by Cecil Fielder

the stadium naming thing has been going on for awhile now... what's to worry about it? it's just a damn name... call it whatever the hell you want.

personally, for $75 million over 30 years I'd change the name of anything i owned.

I know it has. I was just pointing out the fact that everybody cried foul over the spiderman bases, saying how baseball was selling its soul...

Whereas, in reality, it had already sold its soul a long time ago when selling the naming rights of their stadiums...

[Cecil Fielder]

could you please point out to me a time when baseball still had any kind of soul or any kind of dignity? was there some brief period after they stopped enslaving the players (mid-70's) and before the worst work stoppage in history (81) that baseball had a soul?

"a favorite baseball team? that's like saying you have a favorite oil company" - Hunter S. Thompson, October 1977

[Cecil Fielder]

dola...

i'll tell ya what bugs me more than stadium names, or logos on the bases, or any of that...

it's those stupid ads behind home plate that try to take away my attention any time i'm watching the view from the center field camera...

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by CamEdwards

I think it should be "The Big Texan Ballpark", or maybe "KT's Adult Video Barn and Ballpark".

Bah, like Bobby Lee has that kind of money to spend on naming rights. Although, the image of a huge frickin' steak in center field has its appeal.

[fantastic flying froggies]

Originally Posted by Cecil Fielder

could you please point out to me a time when baseball still had any kind of soul or any kind of dignity? was there some brief period after they stopped enslaving the players (mid-70's) and before the worst work stoppage in history (81) that baseball had a soul?

Very true, and kind of what I was trying to say...

[Cecil Fielder]

Originally Posted by fantastic flying froggies

Very true, and kind of what I was trying to say...

exactly... there is no soul to sell...

the soul of baseball lies in the hearts of it's fans. I love the game and will be a fan of it no matter how badly big money people try to ruin it.

kinda like America.

kinda like life.

[Hammer755]

Originally Posted by Cecil Fielder

could you please point out to me a time when baseball still had any kind of soul or any kind of dignity? was there some brief period after they stopped enslaving the players (mid-70's) and before the worst work stoppage in history (81) that baseball had a soul?

"a favorite baseball team? that's like saying you have a favorite oil company" - Hunter S. Thompson, October 1977

Hey, some of us do have a favorite oil company!!!1

[Tasan]

Lol Hammer, yes some of us do! Mine is Kerr McGee!