Toyota Center of Houston Rockets

The Toyota Center constitutes an indoor downtown Houston playfield for the NBA's Houston Rockets team, who principally utilize the premises as their headquarters. The site originally housed the nation's hockey league's Houston Aeros team. In July of 2003, this arena assumed the name of 'Toyota Center', following a one-hundred-million-dollar agreement the team signed with the automotive manufacturer, according naming rights to the latter. At that time, it was the nation's 4th biggest contract for a sporting arena.

Of the rights, the leading multinational won by signing the contract were the company's logo set down at a highly prominent spot on the Houston Rockets building's rooftop, and in a number of other noticeable places across the premises. In addition, Toyota was also provided a central spot in the TV commercials that were shown during basketball broadcasts of the games that were played at the 'Toyota Center' basketball court.

This was a first in the city's history that a sports center's naming rights were secured by a foreign, and not local, company. The Toyota-Houston Rockets contract covered not only naming rights but also many other aspects that would serve to ensure Toyota's constant and dominant presence was felt all over the facility.

The contract also mentioned the inclusion of what became the arena's "Tundra Zone" that comprised of one double-sized set of rooms for accommodating existing as well as prospective Toyota clients. The Tundra Zone always features one actual model of a Toyota Tundra, which makes this the lone in-bowl vehicular display in a U.S. sports arena. Additionally, the northern part of the edifice's central courtyard has a Toyota showroom that always features a variety of models of the company's trucks and cars.

Representatives of the company claimed that Toyota's chief goal in securing the basketball facility's naming rights was to ensure the automobile manufacturer's presence constantly grew in the Texas and Houston regions. However, this contractual relationship also appears to have a distinctive international touch to it (Manfull, 2003).

The Houston Rockets' Toyota Center provides an inclusive range of facilities, which include access to the central courtyard from the street level, larger spaces between the arena seats for access that is more convenient, a high-tech center-hung sound system and scoreboard, and a classy fine dining restaurant. Further, the facility features the cream of premium services, which include a couple of expansive club lounges that provide clear visibility of the basketball court and a private courtside lounge. The 775,000-sq. ft. arena is able to seat approximately 18,500 spectators for a game of basketball, 19,300 concert spectators, and about 17,800 hockey spectators. The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority owns the multi-purpose facility, which is operated by the Clutch City Sports and Entertainment company, according to a three-decade-long contract (NBA, 2003).

Toyota's chief interest with respect to signing the arena's naming rights was the presence of Chinese basketball star, Yao Ming, a popular figure in Asia, who was, at that time, playing for the Houston Rockets. The fee was mostly disbursed by the Gulf States' division and accompanying dealerships. The company's Japanese and American divisions also agreed to financing an unnamed sum in the purchase deal. The contract was also the 9th biggest American sports center naming rights agreement, comparable with naming rights contracts for Los Angeles' Staples Center (two decades of naming rights for a hundred million dollars) and San Antonio's SBC Center (two decades of naming rights for a hundred and one million dollars).

This was the automotive company's first investment in sporting arena naming rights, apparent throughout the Rockets games within the court, on the facility's rooftop, and in radio and TV commercials accompanying game broadcasts.

Besides a huge presence within Houston's local market, the company also successfully opened an eight-hundred-million-dollar Tundra pickup manufacturing unit in the year 2006 in Texas's San Antonio, in addition to a Chinese unit (the Chinese were huge fans of their countryman Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets). Through the agreement, the following distinct additions were made to the basketball center:

1. Broadcast exposure and the whole facility, including its parking lot, highlighting Toyota's presence in the form of numerous areas and displays named after the company and its many brands.

2. Signage at the five entrances into the edifice, including a huge neon sign situated at the main Labranch and Polk entrance.

3. The company's name and logo on the center's rooftop

4. Signs at four separate locations across the Tundra Garage (the parking is next to the court)

5. A fifteen-seat, double-sized "Tundra Zone" suite within the arena, where dealerships sell Rockets games tickets. The suite always features a model of any Tundra pickup.

6. A 3,900-sq. ft. showroom situated in the arena's northeast end

7. A 35-ft. wide, 41 ft. high graphic of Toyota's logo featured on the main wall visible to visitors via the arena's glass front; as soon as they enter the facility through its main entrance, visitors can clearly see it on the wall.

8. Company rights to name one of the courtside lounges situated near the floor-level suites, behind the arena's lowest-level seats.

9. The company's logo or name on large video screens placed at all ends of the facility, around the whole of the center-hung game scoreboard, at two spots on the basketball court, over the court's Houston Rockets entrance, and before the court's press table.

10. Toyota's dominant presence in the nearly sixty TV and radio commercials accompanying local game broadcasts (Feigen, 2003).

References

Feigen, J. (2003, July 25). Details of the Naming Rights Deal. Retrieved from http://bbs.clutchfans.net/beta-final/index.php?threads/chron-details-of-the-naming-rights-deal.61999/

Manfull, M. (2003, July 24). New arena will be Toyota Center. Retrieved from Houston Chronicle: http://www.chron.com/sports/rockets/article/New-arena-will-be-Toyota-Center-2123663.php

NBA. (2003, July 24). Toyota Secures Naming Rights to New Downtown Arena. Retrieved from NBA: Toyota Secures Naming Rights to New Downtown Arena