The most current partnership in the works is between the Cleveland Convention Center and FirstMerit Bank.
Why don’t more convention centers have naming rights deals as stadiums and arenas do?
“The value of sponsorship marketing at its very core is the combination of media value driven by eyeballs and impressions plus the emotional connection fans or consumers have to a brand or property. Naming rights of stadiums or arenas are more common because they lend themselves as an opportunity for corporate partners to gain an affinity with fans who attend venues to cheer on their favorite sports teams or enjoy their favorite bands or family shows,” said Bryan Furey, senior vice president corporate partnerships, venue management with Spectra.
Furey continues: “These fans are extremely passionate about these sports and entertainment properties and the naming rights become a vehicle for brands to incorporate themselves into the lifestyles of those consumers who enjoy these activities. In addition, major sports tenants also have regional or national television coverage of their games and the events held in an arena are marketed and promoted in a community to draw public attendance for ticket sales. This media coverage and these marketing initiatives offer naming rights partners additional eyeballs or media exposure providing more return value for their marketing expenditures.”
All that said, look around and you will still find some convention centers getting into the naming rights business. Furey’s employer Spectra manages two convention center properties with naming rights including the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati and the Choice Credit Union Convention Center at Veterans Memorial in Des Moines, Iowa.
The most current partnership in the works is between the Cleveland Convention Center and FirstMerit Bank, where Julie Tutkovics, executive vice president, chief marketing officer, said the reasons for wanting to get this deal done are plentiful.
“The Cleveland Convention Center is a state-of-the-art facility and an important economic driver for Cleveland and the region,” she said. “We see a unique opportunity to partner with Cuyahoga County and the City to continue the progress we are seeing in Northeast Ohio. We are excited to support this important venue and align the FirstMerit name with such a phenomenal resource in the marketplace. We know that the FirstMerit Convention Center of Cleveland will be a high-quality destination to host local and national events.”
While convention center officials did not wish to comment while the partnership is still being finalized, the points that Tutkovics makes are well taken. Regardless of venue type, the naming rights partner understands the visibility that comes with such deals as well as showing support to a community or region, which is a given for the nearby Akron-based FirstMerit.
Steve Peters, president of VenuWorks, believes these types of deals will be more common in the future.
“Securing a naming rights sponsor is all about the number of impressions you can deliver,” he said. “Generally speaking, theatres, arenas and stadiums generate more media coverage than convention centers, and thus more impressions. That is not to say that convention centers do not generate impressions – they do. And those impressions can be very valuable for the right sort of sponsor.”
The Cleveland Convention Center is an SMG-managed venue. The company has a handful of naming rights deals in place at some of its convention centers, including the TD Convention Center in Greenville, S.C. The rights for that venue were negotiated directly by the City of Greenville, which owns the facility.
“I would say that our affiliation with TD Bank has been very positive and we appreciate their support,” said John Wilusz, general manager of the venue. “We have experienced only positives from the relationship.”
Another SMG-managed convention center, the Enercare Centre in Toronto, has also already benefited from its partnership with the provider of home and commercial services and energy solutions. The $7.5-million (CDN) partnership started in August and runs through May 31, 2026.
“We continue to grow our business and the development on the campus,” said Laura Purdy, director of sales and marketing. “Our naming rights sponsors are communicated to regularly and their brand is prominently displayed on our venues (including the Allstream Centre) and in our promotional material.”
Indeed, there are many positive scenarios that play out in these types of deals, first and foremost the financial impact to the venue.
“The revenue can serve as a great source of significant incremental revenue that is guaranteed over multiple years,” Furey said. “Second, the partnership with a corporate brand can offer much needed support and additional resources to a convention center based on how you activate the naming rights partnership and work together. A naming rights partner can provide additional marketing exposure for your convention center through their own promotion of the naming rights partnership and the venue. They can also help generate new events at your facility related to their industry or the events they may organize.”
“Naming right sponsors can be very important to a venue with the cash injection that comes with the sponsorship,” Peters added. “But the very best naming sponsors also become effective marketing partners with the venues they sponsor.”
Furey said that one possible downside in convention center naming rights might come when the facility is trying to attract trade shows and conventions from out of town.
“Convention centers are often tourism drivers,” he said. “Keeping the city or state name as part of the name of the facility has marketing value during those efforts to attract events to come to the facility. There is immediate brand recognition as a location. Each facility will need to judge that value to them vs. selling a naming rights deal. That probably comes down to the individual needs of the market and their competition.”
In the end, any naming rights deal has to work for both parties, regardless of venue type. No two venues share the same exact goals when working on deals just as no two naming rights partners have identical goals they are looking to reach in such relationships.
“For us, the partnership offers an opportunity to reinforce our commitment to Cleveland and Northeast Ohio,” Tutkovics said. “It also, in turn, helps us continue to raise our profile in a very important market to the bank. It is certainly a significant benefit to share our brand with the hundreds of thousands of business people who live in Cleveland as well as those visiting from across our footprint and around the world. We recognize those that attend conventions and conferences will bring additional opportunities for our company, our employees and our shareholders. It is the perfect partnership for us to reinforce our presence to the right people at the right time.”
Interviewed for this article: Bryan Furey, (215) 609-1651; Steve Peters, (515) 509-2993; Laura Purdy, (416) 263-3020; Julie Tutkovics, (330) 384-7009; John Wilusz, (864) 255-5872