Naming Rights of Stadiums around the Country

I’ve been looking into naming rights of stadiums. Herenton has been throwing around the huge numbers like $200 million for the naming rights of Washington Redskins. (The contract is $7.6 million per year until the 2025.) Now these huge contracts are for professional sports teams such as the Redskins, Dallas Mavericks, and Carolina Panthers. Here in Memphis, FedEx pays $4.5 million per year in naming rights for the Grizzlies. (Check this site for values of naming rights- http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/sportsbusiness/news/story?page=stadiumnames )

As stadiums slide down to the minor league and college level the value of naming rights contracts drop as well. Here is what the site- http://www.namingrightsonline.com/ has to say about minor league stadiums.
“There are 107 deals in place in minor league professional sports including the top levels of junior hockey. There are 59 named facilities in professional baseball, three in minor league football, 37 in minor league hockey, five in minor league soccer and three in minor league tennis. The average known term of these agreements is approximately 11 years. The value of the average known deal is approximately $3.3 million making the average annual value approximately $280,000. There were 22 minor league facilities named in 1999 making it the year with the most completed deals.”

The biggest question for funding the new stadium is the value of the naming rights. The stadium would host U of M football games, the Southern Heritage Classic (maybe), and maybe one or two other events per year. Why would Herenton expect contract values like the Redskins (The most valuable franchise in the NFL) or the Dallas Mavericks Stadium (which hosts pro-basketball and hockey events.). To imply that Memphis will get a naming rights contract anywhere near the value of these stadiums is disingenuous.