Sun Life? Sounds like another Jimmy Buffett brand
By David Sweet • Jan 19th, 2010 • Category: A-B InBev, NFL
As reported in Sports on Tap previously, Land Shark Stadium — named after a Jimmy Buffett-licensed beer brand — had a brief fling in South Florida. Yet another new name has emerged for the 23-year-old facility.
On Wednesday, the multipurpose stadium will start to be called Sun Life Stadium, according to the South Florida Business Journal. Could it be another Buffett outfit, considering his songs about sunny days and the good life? Not quite. The Toronto-based company, known in full as Sun Life Financial, is a little more bottom-line in its orientation.
That also means it won’t make the announcement of the name switch backed by a band surrounded by Parrotheads, as Buffett did in 2009.
The deal is said to be worth $7.5 million a year over five years for the Miami Dolphins, which is pretty impressive in a tough environment for naming-rights deals. Even the king of revenue streams, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, hasn’t been able to land naming rights for his stunning new stadium.
Sun Life will start out with a bang, hosting the Pro Bowl this weekend and the Super Bowl on Feb. 7. No word on whether LandShark Lager, which is brewed by Anheuser-Busch, will be available at either game (or why the stadium was spelled Land Shark, despite the combination of the two words in the logo above).
