Miami Dolphins' stadium picks up new name

MIAMI — The Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl will be played over the next couple of Sundays in South Florida. Exactly where — that's causing a little confusion.

To some fans, the building that's hosting both games will always be Joe Robbie Stadium. But the NFL's Web site called it Dolphin Stadium earlier this week. And its official name, as of last week, is Sun Life Stadium. Even some of the Pro Bowlers were surprised to hear that.

Toronto-based Sun Life Financial is paying at least $4 million a year for a five-year naming rights agreement to the stadium where the Miami Dolphins and Florida Marlins play.

"We hope this is the last name that will ever be on the stadium," said Priscilla Brown, senior vice president and head of U.S. marketing for Sun Life, a company that provides financial services to 20 million customers in 25 countries but wants to raise its U.S. profile.

Just how many name changes this makes depends a bit on how you count.

The stadium opened in 1987 as Joe Robbie Stadium, honoring the Dolphins' founding owner. It has also been Pro Player Park, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, Dolphin Stadium and Land Shark Stadium.

Asked to name the stadium where they were playing this weekend, some of the Pro Bowlers practicing Thursday didn't know.

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Hervoyel said:

I hate naming rights with a passion. The day that crap started professional sports (and their college-professional equivilents) lost something. It ticks me off so much that I swear if I'd had the kind of money necessary to do it I'd have tried to buy "lifetime of the structure" naming rights to the Astros park and then called it "The Ballpark at Union Station" and then done something similar with Reliant Stadium (I'm kind of partial to "Phillips Stadium" in honor of Bum).

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JPPT1974 said:

But you do need naming rights in order to pay for the stadium, like it or not.

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gtexan02 said:

Hmm, Sun Life is the one with the commercials about having Florida change their name to the "Sun Life State" from the "Sunshine state", right?

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Hervoyel said:

I hate naming rights with a passion. The day that crap started professional sports (and their college-professional equivilents) lost something. It ticks me off so much that I swear if I'd had the kind of money necessary to do it I'd have tried to buy "lifetime of the structure" naming rights to the Astros park and then called it "The Ballpark at Union Station" and then done something similar with Reliant Stadium (I'm kind of partial to "Phillips Stadium" in honor of Bum).

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toronto said:

Actually, its a Canadian invasion of Florida, only this time not by snowbirds.

Sun Life is a major player up here in the insurance industry and has been looking to increase their footprint in the US for a while now - the timing of this move couldn't have been more perfect for them.

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