Will Target shops ever find a major league sports field to sponsor?
Ever since the Minnesota Twins received public approval in 2006 for a new ballpark, team President Dave St. Peter has been fielding calls from companies wanting to talk about naming rights for the stadium. On Monday, the Twins hit the bull’s-eye when the team announced tentative agreement on a 25-year marketing deal with Target Corp. to call the 40,000-seat stadium Target Field. While specific financial terms weren’t disclosed, several sports analysts around the country estimated the deal could be worth $100 million or more over the 25 years, and one sports marketing analyst said it could be worth $8 million a year or more. “We really focused on Target,” St. Peter said Monday. “We really had only serious discussions with one company, and that was Target.” The $517 million stadium project, financed mainly with public money, will open in 2010. The $8 million figure “would not seem extravagant,” said Steven Korenblat, who helped Citibank negotiate a $20 million-a-year naming rights deal f
