Best Buy
Target
3M
Cargill
General Mills

Banks have become increasingly competitive in stadium/arena naming rights. I would bank on Wells Fargo Field becoming the name of the new ballpark. Here in Phoenix, when Bank One (now Chase) got their name on the ballpark, Wells Fargo scrambled to get their name on any building they could. The Suns had already awarded naming rights to their arena to America West Airlines (now US Airways) so all that was left was the Activity Center on the ASU campus. It is now known as Wells Fargo Arena.

Since TCF just got their name on the new Gophers stadium, I'm willing to bet it's once again Wells Fargo wanting to get their name on a building to compete with another local bank.

Gentlemen, I present WELLS FARGO FIELD

1. 3M
2. Best Buy
3. General Mills
4. Ameriprise
5. UnitedHealth

C'mon Wheaties Field!!!

wells fargo isn't headquartered here, US Bank is. Wheaties Field has a nice ring but don't know of any stadiums/arenas named after a specific company's product brand. There probably is some instance of it, but I can't think of one.

Tim, I happen to know of several parks named after specific products:

Minute Maid Park(Houston)
Busch Stadium(St. Louis)
Tropicana Field(Tampa Bay)

There may be more, I'll look it up soon.

Man, I'm really hoping for "Land O'Lakes Park," but I don't know how much of an international presence they have. You know, unless you count Manitoba and Ontario.

1. 3M
2. General Mills
3. Best Buy

If I had to pick my top three, it would be 3M, General Mills, and Best Buy. Each are very prominent companies with headquarters in the Twin Cities metro area and have strong international ties. 3M posted revenues over $22 billion in 2006 and General Mills posted revenues over $12 billion in 2007 while Best Buy posted revenues over $30 billion in 2006. I have also seen a lot more Best Buy advertising in recent years in various stadiums and arenas, so maybe they are testing the waters of sports marketing/advertising for a potential naming rights deal in Minneapolis.

Also, it was about ten years ago when Xcel Energy purchased naming rights to the new Saint Paul arena, does anyone know of any other companies that were interested in the St. Paul arena that may now be interested in the Twins Ballpark?

All I want is a very simple name that will last for more than five years.

Nobody has mentioned Medtronic. We could call it The MED !! As in The MET.

How about Northwest Park?

Isn't Hormel headquartered in Austin, MN? Of the top-5 shown further above, I definately hope it is General Mills that wins out. And if they did choose to name it after one of their cereals, "Wheaties Field" would be very cool.

"Ameriprise Field" would really suck.

How about Cargil, they have an huge international presence and they have been here forever

I realize that Wells Fargo isn't headquarted in MN, however, they have a huge presence there. They're not headquarted here either and they have their name on the ASU arena. Also, didn't Pohlad sell Marquette Bank to Wells Fargo??? Perhaps there's already a working relationship there...

I'd prefer 3M. It's a nice, short company name with a simple, unoffensive logo. It would almost be like the Twins HADN'T pimped themselves out to a company.

Man, I'm really hoping for "Land O'Lakes Park," but I don't know how much of an international presence they have. You know, unless you count Manitoba and Ontario.

Cargill is a privately held company - that might have a lot of bearing on a decision. One of my friends who works there says the chances are small that Cargill would pay naming rights.

3M or GM would be a great fit. Both have deep roots here and have great reputations.

I disagree with the comment about Target and Best Buy lacking an international presence. Those companies have a huge international presence - it's not all brick and mortar stores, you know. They need to buy the stuff they sell, and it's not all coming from the US of A...

oh great. we may get 'target field' across from 'target center' and who knows, maybe a big bullseye in the plaza in R field.

i wish the twins would set the trend w/ naming their new park in this manner: give it a corporate name in front but append it onto 'at twinsville' or 'of minnesota.' with that methodology, 'best buy field at twinsville' may be tolerable, but '3M park of minnesota' really sounds nice.

Whoops, sorry for the double comment.

Do we really have to have A naming deal. Yea I know its whats done these days. But is it possible that a person or people with enough money could buy the naming rights themselves and name it what they want if enough money was paid. It would be nice to have something other than a corporate name on the place doubt thats possible but its a thought.

How about "Hennepin County Taxpayer Park"

Has a nice ring to it.

I dunno Milt, I kinda like Waste Management Field at The Burning Trash Dump. Come one and come all to watch your Twins play in a brand new ballpark surrounded by lovely views of billowing steam behind you, an ugly historic building in left field and worst angle of the Minneapolis skyline, obstructed by the Multifoods tower which many downtowners like to refer to as the sh&tstack.

But hey, it's still better than the Metrodome!!!

bitter much?

milt and kevin in az, are you statler & waldorf in real life?

Ameriprise Park?

actually best buy has brick & mortar stores in china, puerto rico and will soon be opening up shop in mexico & turkey. finally, they are looking for a partner in the UK (london).

so yes, i would say best buy definitely has an international presence. far more so than target, us bank, cargill, etc.

my money is on best buy folks.

It's called sarcasm....LAUGH PEOPLE!!!

Puckett Park!!

Get a life Milt and all you ballpark haters! Take your ballpark hating a@# to another site. Leave the one that Rick leaves un-tainted alone!

Anyway that said....My money's on Best Buy Field. But I really don't care as long as I can watch outdoor Twins baseball for the next 30+ years!!!

why hasn't the Metrodome been corporately renamed?

Also, pictures of the first event at the Nats new ballpark. click my name.

Thanks for the pics haasertime...They scoreboard screen looks awesome!! It's probably the only thing I like about
Nationals Park. It's yet another new ballpark with outfield SEATS, no bleachers...They Twins are really missing the boat by following this trend of no bleachers.

Hey yeahklye,
Love the muppet reference

If you look up "Washington Nationals Web cam" you can look in the archives at the construction. It's pretty cool to see how far it came in the last year to year and a half. 3M park at Puckett Place.

LOL @ Blizzard Park for an outdoor baseball stadium. I don't think the Twins will go for that name. Also, I think DQ will hold out for naming rights to the new ViQueens stadium, if it ever gets built.

My guess is 3M, which gets more than 60% of its revenue from outside the US.

3M, what about Minnesota MM park? I like that, it has the company name and Minnesota in it.

Travelers Field. It would stick with the transportation theme.

I think given the clues it has to be either General Mills or 3M. But I wouldn't count out US Bank.

General Mills, 3M, or Target. Guaranteed one of those three.

ladies & gentlemen, here's you answer to the trivia question:

"which twin recorded the first save in the new ballpark?"...

General Mills Field.....aka "The Big G"

Since we have the HHH Metrodome, why not the 3M "MMM Field" or "MMM Park"

Packerguy, I don't think "The Big G" would be very fitting. The park will be small(40,000 seats) and the field dimensions average at best.

"G Spot" maybe?

I think there was some law in place at the time the metrodome was built that prohibits coropate names for that venue and I think the law is still applies . I suppose if there has to be a coporate name something from Minnesota would be far nicer than anything else. Has anyone mention northwest airlines yet. It does have an international destinations and is based here for the moment but naww on second thought maybe thats not a good idea hehehe. Hopefully this mystery will end sometime soon.

Right now NWA doesn't have a pot to pee in. I highly doubt they have any extra cash to put their name on a ballpark.

"Twins see naming-rights deal done by end of '08"

Here is an article from the Minneapolis-St Paul Business Journal about the Twins Stadium naming rights...click on name to read article

Disregard the previous post...it is the same article from March 21 that Rick previously posted. It was just sent to me and hyperlinked differently, so I apologize.

Would Target bother with the naming rights to a stadium directly across the street/parking ramp from the Target Center? Seems like they already have a big presence in the neighborhood. I would eliminate Target form the list of contenders.

They are pouring concrete on the right field club level this morning! I was watching from the parking ramp this morning...pretty sweet.

You can really get the feeling from up there that this is going to be a very intimate park. Rather than "The Big Blue Room" as Pat Reusse would say.

I agree. You can also get a feel for how vertical this park will be. Those upper deck seats will be way up there!

why is there always a long line of yellow school buses facing west lined up on 7th street?

When there are events at the Target Center they park semi trucks and buses and other large vehicles on that bridge. Those buses today are for the Boys Basketball Tournament.

Looks like they're pouring concrete on the club level concourse right now.

I was in the Twins ballpark sales office yesterday for a presentation on the Legends Club. The Twins' VP of ticket sales was giving the presentation and said that as part of the add'l upgrades the Twins are paying for, they are spending $3.5MM to put a green roof on the front office building in left field, and that they are envisioning firepits up there for people to use (on a reservation basis I would assume). Is this old news? I don't remember ever reading about it on the board before. Sounds awesome.

Yes it does sound awesome, but it also sounds potentially dangerous. Think about it...Burning fires near drinking sports fans? Now there's a tragic accident waiting to happen. I can see the attractiveness to those of us who are normal. But there are sports fans with psychological problems who love to drink excessively. I can envision two fans arguing and one shoving the other into the burning firepit. Okay, so maybe I've attended too many Vikings/Packers games. Yes baseball fans are different than football fans to some degree, but booze is booze and fire is fire.....Will the Pohlads want to cover that legal battle? I doubt it...Bad idea!

Besides, with my luck it will probably be me getting into trouble with the firepit. For some reason, I always get the snotty kid sitting behind me who loves to kick my seat. Even when I turn around and glare at the child's parents, nothing happens. I can envision myself in my cranky old age..picking up the child and throwing him/her into the firepit.

Dain, a company like Target isn't buying the naming rights to advertise to locals. They're buying them because every time the Twins are on ESPN, every TV clip, Sportscenter reel, etc. will mention the ballpark by name.

They buy these rights because males ages 18-45 know the names of all these sports venues across the nation, not just in the local market. For that reason, I think Target would still be interested.

Last night they they placed more steel beams for the plaza beyond right field. If your looking at the Twins stadium cam, you need to look close. They installed them going across the other half of 394 (lower left corner).

well, it is late march and it just snowed pretty heavily in chicago and detroit today, so i guess that means that they should be forced to immediately put a roof or retractable roof on all of their baseball stadiums or not be allowed to start the season. i mean what are they thinking people? playing baseball outdoors under the sky in open air stadiums like the game is meant to be played. it's just silly! silly i tell ya!

It's not like people in this forum need convincing, but I thought this article (click my name) is particularly relevant after yesterday's news of $2M study for Metrodome, and the whining that promptly ensued. People don't realize that sports are a major part of a city's vitality. They do produce revenue for the city, often in indirect ways.

The economy in Michigan right now is terrible, especially in Detroit. Despite this, the 2 brand new stadiums downtown have regenerated interest and development for the city. The difference in the immediate areas before and after the stadiums were built is dramatic. $4M economic boost just from opening day is impressive.

I think Hormel will get the naming rights:
SPAM Field anyone?

How about you name it after myself...Pohlad Park...I am the wealthiest owner in MLB, but yet I feel obligated to put a majority of the financial burden on the taxpayers of Hennepin County. Thay way, Sid Hartman will feel obligated to credit me for my kindness and loyalty by putting the stadium under my name as well since I kept MLB alive in Minnesota in 1984 when I bought the team from the Griffith family.

:: pushes Carl down flight of stairs ::

If General Mills gets it and chooses to go with a specific food, they would almost have to go with Wheaties. I don't see "Lucky Charms Stadium" or "Fiber One Field" happening any time soon.

My top choices would be 3M, Wells Fargo, General Mills, and "Best Buy Ballpark" doesn't sound bad either.

I already posted this accidentally under an earlier blog entry, but not knowing if it would be seen, here it is again:
Do to what I've been hearing about Busch Stadium III from the Greet Machine (3/24 post) and the baseball fever forums, I'm a little concerned about the Twins' ballpark, since it's from the same firm that did Busch III.

Hey maybe we could call it hamms field in honor of Theo Hamms yea I know hamms is not around much as it once was but its another thought. Or maybe Grain Belt hey both were in minnesota at one time and were big stuff. Then again I dont think any of these companies would invest in naming rights but they are in minnesota. Carlson companies they were always big into the twins I remeber them being mentioned at the old met all the time. Marvin windows, Artic Cat just think of hot girls on the backs of snomobiles riding around the field. Hey why not Nordic Ware they could name it after the famous bundt pan could not get any Minnesota than that heheheh. Oh please forgive me I am just rambling on thinking about the good old days that are long gone. The old met the tailgating and such the way it used to be. I guess I have to get used to todays times hard as it may be. I just hope the powers that be pick out name that all can live with thats all. I suppose Met Stadium is out of the question huh.

Washington's new ballpark opens tomorrow night on ESPN. Rick, I would love to hear your general analysis of it/comparison to our park.

There's a couple good stories in the Washington Post about the park...and the editors critique it pretty well, even commenting what they don't like about it. There's a good page with articles, pictures, videos, etc. (click name for link)

Baseball Fan,

If this were 1978, I'm sure Hamms would be the name of the ballpark. Those Hamms commercials during the games were far more entertaining than Twins baseball back then!! TC Bear sort of resembles the Hamms bear.

Excited, you mean tonight right? Wonder what kind of reception the Prez will get when he tosses the first pitch.

Wow thats some cool video and stuff on that nats new park. It would be interesting to find out how our park will compare to it. First look at it and to me me it looks what you can access is determined by how much you pay for A ticket which I would not like that since the nats park was paid for by the public. Hope we here dont go that route. I kinda like the way safeco field does it. Since the public paid for it they should have access to most of it in fact the encourage people to come out to the game early and walk all over the place before the game. I hope we would do that here at the new place since at the metrodome if you have a really cheap seat there are some restricted access to the other levels. Just wanted to partciapate in some stuff going on on the main level once and was told since I had a cheap seat the only place I could be is on the upper level dont know if thats still true since its been a couple of years since I had been to a game because of that incident.

I like the grey stone behind the plate at Nationals Park. It's definitely something new and unique as you can immediately distinguish Nationals Park with the grey stone, just like you are able to do so with Wrigley Field and the brick as well as PNC Park (and the soon-to-be Twins ballpark) with the limestone backstop.

St. Peter's new blog posting makes comparisons between the Nats new park and the Twins' park. While there are some similarities, I'm glad that they are few and far between. The Nats stadium was a rushed project, and has a very predictable layout.

The more I look at other ballparks - the more appealing our Twins park continues to look. I'm really happy they've taken the extra time and money to make additions, corrections, and ensure an awesome experience for Twins fans.

One big plus to the Nats park: the name!

How about Ole and Lena Park?

Polaris is based in Minnesota. They make Victory motorcycles. How about "Victory Field at Polaris Park"?

Regarding Nationals Park, there was a headline on the Washington Post website that said "This Diamond isn't a Gem" with the header stating "the bland face is a muffed chance." Anyone here a Wash Post subscriber and able to read the rest of the article?

Also, on one of the Post's public fan blogs, there were gripes about the outfield scoreboard being the only source of in-game information and that people not in its sightlines couldn't follow the game at all. Since the main scoreboard for the Twins stadium is situated almost exactly in the same spot, do we know if there will be other scoreboards in other parts of the stadium for the outfield spectators?

i agree the only part of the nats park i really liked seeing was the stone behind homeplate. i think our park will be more distinctive. i'm partial to green seats over their blue. you're right about the scoreboard, as ours will be over left-center and have similar sightline problems as the nats. according to st. peter our board will be larger, though.

too bad it has to snow today and we get to hear the local media play up the outdoor ballpark vs. dome debate for the umpteenth time.

Any new pictures of the construction? The webcam views get old after awhile.

I like Puckett Park (The Puck???). Blizzard Park would work if the weather is the same three years from now that it is today. Go for it, DQ!

BTW, Pittsburgh's "new" park has a 21-foot wall in honor of Roberto Celemente. How about a 34-foot wall in honor of Kirby...or a 3-foot wall in honor of Harmon.

Whoa, Greg! Two years is long enough. Don't say three and scare the bejesus out of me!

I think that the stadium should be called Monster Stadium in honor of the gluek energy drink but 3m and general mills are cool too.

3M's Post-it Notes fit the bill best. Name it "3M Post-it Park" which will be named later "Postpone Park" due to the lack of climate control enjoyed from the previous home.