New Orleans Saints Secure Mercedes-Benz for Dome Naming Rights

National Football League’s (NFL) New Orleans Saints and Mercedes-Benz announced that they have reached a 10-year naming rights agreement with the 36-year-old Louisiana Superdome being known as Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Officials from the Saints, Mercedes-Benz and the state are expected to make the official announcement at a news conference today at the iconic stadium on Poydras Street where they’ll unveil plans for the new signage in and around the stadium, where the Mercedes-Benz name and logo will be featured prominently.

Governor Bobby Jindal said: “This is a great, great partnership. I know for many years there have been attempts to sell this sponsorship, and I think the restructured deal and the new Superdome are two of the reasons this is actually happening. So I think this is great for the Saints and great for the state.”

The announcement comes slightly more than six years after Hurricane Katrina tore the roof off the stadium as it was being used as a shelter by thousands of New Orleanians. A massive renovation allowed the stadium to reopen for the 2006 NFL season, and the building has been improved every off-season with the final touches of the $336 million project completed in August. According to Saints officials, it’s a new stadium that is better than any in the country.

And the stadium’s profile will be raised as it hosts three national sporting events in the next 16 months: January’s BCS championship game, April’s men’s Final Four and in February 2013, the Super Bowl. Those events and the success and stature of the building’s primary tenant — the Saints — helped persuade Mercedes-Benz to sign on.

Steve Cannon, the vice president of marketing for Mercedes-Benz USA, said: “Americans love stories of comebacks. They love re-inventions. They love re-definitions. For that reason, the city of New Orleans and the New Orleans Saints as an organization is kind of symbolic of that re-invention, rebirth.

“Certainly those images that go back to Katrina are a difficult chapter for all of us, but to see out of that experience a brand new stadium inside and out completely renovated, a driver of economic development within that city and state and for us to be a part of that story was a good thing. For us this is a local deal, a regional deal and a national deal because we think it plays on every single one of those levels.”

According to the current lease agreement, the Saints get the first $1 million of net revenue from the naming rights deal, with a 50-50 split between the team and the state of the remaining revenue, although the state’s share is in credits toward the subsidy payments, not cash.

The deal makes the Saints the 23rd NFL team that plays its home games at a stadium with a naming-rights deal.

Naming-rights deals are viewed as valuable revenue streams for NFL franchises, allowing owners to generate extra revenue while gaining corporate sponsors.

Saints owner Tom Benson, said: “The Saints were eager, in our new deal with the state, to undertake seeking the right company for naming rights for the Superdome. We have found an iconic partner for an iconic building. Mercedes-Benz is a global company that can do business in any city anywhere in the world.

“They have chosen New Orleans. This is a great deal for the state of Louisiana, the city of New Orleans as well as for the Saints and Mercedes-Benz. They have been great to work with and proves why they are a global leader.”