No Sponsor Yet For Cowboys Stadium

The official name of the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium isn’t known. What is known is that the name won’t contain the name of a company like Vandelay Industries. The Cowboys have acknowledged that a naming-rights deal has not yet been brokered for the billion-dollar venue, and that the stadium will open without one. “There will be a [sponsored] name on it at some point,” executive vice president Stephen Jones said Thursday. “We certainly want everyone to be aware of that. But not initially.” The irony here, of course, is that owner Jerry Jones reportedly got into an awkward exchange in 2008 with Bengals president Mike Brown regarding his refusal to sell the naming rights to Paul Brown Stadium. As the story goes, Jones offered to pay Brown $5 million per year for the rights, “because I can double that in about five minutes, Mike.” Of course, economic circumstances are different than they were in 2006, and Jones apparently has decided not to lock into a deal based on the current market conditions, opting instead to wait for the climate to improve before nailing down a long-term arrangement in the neighborhood of $20 million per year over 20 years.