Why the Name ‘Sports Authority Field’ Isn’t Going Away
Sports Authority, as you know, had to change course - in fact, so rapidly that it scrapped plans for a Foothills Mall location last minute. However, Mile High Stadium likely won't be taking on a new naming sponsor for a good long while. And the reason is the same for both: There's only so much money to go around.
We're told the naming rights to the venue run in the neighborhood of $10-11 million per year, on a 15 to 20-year contract. That's such an obligation that it's said to have been what killed Sports Authority. It's also more than double what United Airlines paid for the naming rights to the stadium for Southern California University, which is in a much larger market than Denver. Word has it the people who used to run Sports Authority want that name off the stadium - so we'll see how that ends up panning out.
So, until further notice, no one can correct you if you refer to the stadium as Sports Authority Field - Even though it's advertising a store that no longer exists.