Out with the old sponsor, in with the new.
Minute Maid Park’s time is up.
Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez and their Houston Astros teammates will play home games at the renamed Daikin Park when next season begins.
The Astros on Monday announced a 15-year naming rights agreement for their downtown ballpark with Daikin Comfort Technologies North America, Inc., a subsidiary of Daikin Industries, Ltd., the Japan-based manufacturer of air-conditioning products.
The name change to Daikin (pronounced die-kin) will officially take effect Jan. 1, 2025, ending the stadium’s run of over two decades as Minute Maid Park, and last through the 2039 season. The Astros announced the change in a news conference at the ballpark Monday morning, unveiling a home plate-themed Daikin Park logo.
“Today we’re here for a special celebration to welcome Daikin to the Astros family,” Jim Crane, Astros owner and chairman, said at the on-field news conference. “Daikin is a global company whose North American headquarters are based right here in the Houston community, and we hope to make that name present and popular around town.”
Minute Maid Co., a formerly Houston-based division of the Coca-Cola Co., affixed its name to the Astros’ ballpark in June 2002, agreeing to pay the team an estimated $170 million over 28 years for the naming rights plus other advertising and marketing opportunities.
That agreement was to run through 2029. The Astros did not announce why it ended early, but a person with knowledge of the situation said it was a mutual decision for the team to explore finding a new naming rights partner and that the Astros did not have to buy out the rest of the Minute Maid deal.
Minute Maid will remain a marketing partner of the Astros through 2029, the team said.
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The Astros’ ballpark opened in 2000 as Enron Field, its name for two seasons before the Astros bought naming rights back from Enron Corp. after the energy company’s bankruptcy filing. For several months, the stadium was known as Astros Field, prior to its becoming Minute Maid Park.
Some fans will surely retain a connection to that name. During its tenure, the Astros reached their first World Series in team history in 2005, endured a rebuild, changed leagues, won their first World Series in 2017 (later marred by their electronic sign-stealing scandal), and won a second championship in 2022.
Known best for its orange juice, Minute Maid was based in the Houston region for more than 50 years until moving its headquarters to Atlanta in 2021. Crane thanked Minute Maid and the Coca-Cola Co. “for being a great partner for a very, very long time and committed to the ballpark.”
“We look forward to continuing working with them moving forward,” Crane said.
Minute Maid has prominent signage at multiple spots around the ballpark, including the exterior facing U.S. 59 and above the huge video scoreboard beyond the right-field bleachers. A rendering displayed at Monday’s news conference showed a Daikin Park logo above the scoreboard and on the outside of the building.
Signage changes will be made throughout the first quarter of 2025 and completed by opening day, March 27, when the Astros host the Mets, a team spokesperson said.
The train above the left-field Crawford Boxes has held a “cargo” of oranges since the ballpark was christened after Minute Maid. The train is not going anywhere, but in regard to the oranges, the team is working on a replacement “surprise” that will be revealed opening day, Crane said.
I think the train should instead be full of air conditioning ducts, which honestly is more Houston than the oranges ever were. Be that as it may, I feel like “Minute Maid Park” was never all that memorable a name. Unlike when, say, the Summit became the Compaq Center, I don’t think too many people are going to refuse to update their preferences. I may go full hipster and start calling it Enron Field again, just to see who’s with me on the joke. Anyway, like it or not here comes Daikin Park. CultureMap has more.
The Juice Box is dead.
Long live the Bento Box.