| | Associated Press
DENVER -- The naming rights to Mile High Stadium are up for
grabs but the winner will not necessarily be the highest bidder.
Stadium officials, who began accepting offers Wednesday, plan to
screen the bidders to find out if they would be good corporate
neighbors to the community. Each company will be asked 10
questions, including whether the company is based in Colorado and
whether it has a large number of employees here.
"We want to find the best partner, and that may not be the
company that can write the largest check," said Tim Romani,
executive director of the Metropolitan Football Stadium District.
Naming rights are expected to bring in between $52 million and
$89 million. District officials said they plan to keep the names of
the bidders secret but that the details of any final deal would be
released.
The stadium board voted in June to sell the naming rights but
they did not close the door on using Mile High as part of the new
name.
That option is credited for increasing support for selling the
naming rights among Denver area residents.
A poll released Wednesday show residents are nearly evenly
divided on the choices for the stadium name.
The poll, conducted for the Denver Rocky Mountain News and
KCNC-TV, found that 35 percent are opposed to selling the naming
rights but nearly the same favor selling the rights if Mile High
would remain part of the name.
The poll, conducted by Talmey-Drake Research and Strategy of
Boulder, has a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points so the two
positions are very close, said pollster Paul Talmey.
Meanwhile 23 percent favor selling full naming rights.
A poll conducted before the joint naming option was proposed
found two-thirds of those responding were against selling the
naming rights.
Studies show hyphenating the stadium's name would cut the
marketing value in half. But Romani said companies may want to
incorporate the name to foster good relations with the public.
"That company could be seen as the white knight who comes in
and keeps the name while also reducing the taxpayers' debt,"
Romani said.
Money raised from the sale of the stadium's name must be used to
defray what taxpayers will pay through a sales tax to build the
$364 million stadium.
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