| admin |
| Site Admin |
|
 |
| Joined: 31 Dec 1969 |
| Posts: 165 |
| Location: Scranton, PA |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
The value of professional baseball in Northeastern Pennsylvania continues to rise.
PNC Financial Services Group committed $365,000 a year for each of the next three years for naming rights to Lackawanna County Stadium, which will be known as PNC Field when the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees make their debut April 5. The move was announced by PNC and the Lackawanna County Stadium Authority at a Thursday press conference. The Stadium Authority had negotiated in recent years with businesses interested in putting their name on the facility, but not at near the price level.
“We felt that once we had the Yankees in place and Mandalay (Sports Entertainment) in place, that this deal would make sense,” Lackawanna County commissioner Bob Cordaro said. “We were talking about less than half this amount when naming rights were discussed before.”
Peter J. Danchak, president of PNC Bank, Northeast Pennsylvania said the affiliation switch from the Philadelphia Phillies to the New York Yankees and the record ticket sales that followed made the deal attractive.
“The tremendous response of the community combined with the brand of the New York Yankees both nationally and internationally made this a wonderful opportunity,” Danchak said.
For a commitment of almost $1.1 million, PNC will get signage, broadcast advertising and player appearances. It will place ATMs throughout PNC Field.
Danchak also said he is looking forward to additional exposure such as references on the YES Network when the Yankees minor-league teams are being discussed.
Cordaro said that team officials began pursuing a stadium naming rights deal as soon as the franchise’s new nickname was announced.
“That allowed the staff to get cracking,” he said. “We’re taking things very systematically, one step at a time.
“This is a quick culmination of this type of deal.”
The new income and strong ticket sales point to a successful year for the franchise. Cordaro said it is important for some of the profits to be reinvested in the facility in the hopes of making the team and stadium even more attractive by the time the deal expires.
“This year is going to be absolutely critical to see how Lackawanna County Stadium, now PNC Field, stands up to the stress that it has not seen, except on select nights, in recent years,” he said. |
|
