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...

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…