DENVER — For a stadium or arena name to become second nature in how fans refer to it, it must stick. Even a corporate name can work in this regard if it’s the right name.
The names that work are snappy and bear the names of companies that withstand downturns and market ebbs and flows: Coors Field. Busch Stadium. Ford Field. United Center.
They endure over decades, standing above the flotsam of names like Sleep Train Arena, Valley View Casino Center, Smoothie King Center and worst of all, Enron Field.
The first two corporate names on the Broncos’ current stadium to this point fell in the latter group. Invesco’s name was off the stadium after a decade. Sports Authority was bankrupt five years later. The name changed so often in the 2010s, it was barely worth ordering stationery, let alone changing the sign.
Maybe with Empower Retirement, the revolving door stops and the Broncos’ home can find an identity.
“We tend to take a long-term view when we make investments. That’s the way we run our business,” Empower president and CEO Edmund Murphy III said Thursday morning, standing a long Joe Flacco pass from the newly rechristened stadium that now bears his company’s name.
The 21-year deal sounds a bit unusual compared to a number that was a multiple of five or 10. But it’s also nine years longer than the balance of the Broncos’ lease on the stadium, which enters its 19th year of operation.
“I don’t think there’s anything particularly magic about the number, per se,” Murphy said. “There’s 12 years left on the lease. We have provisions that are tied to that. There’s other variables, obviously, but in the main [summary], we were comfortable with the number.”
“A normal term is somewhere around nine, 10, 11 years,” Metropolitan Football Stadium District chairman Ray Baker said, “For them, that was really not a serious part of the negotiations. They really wanted a long-term commitment, so this is not a short-term fix in their mind.
“This isn’t ‘buy-and-brand and move on six years from now.’ [Murphy] spent a long time in conversations with us for out long-term plan for the real estate and how we pay for the capital of this stadium, and he really dug in deeper than most would have thought. I think he sees this to be longer than 21 years, and I think regardless of what may transition, having that type of commitment — which is [nearly] double the term [of the Broncos’ lease], is pretty impressive, and he seems extremely committed to it.”
Perhaps this is where the corporate carousel of names finally stops. But one key to that stability is ensuring that Empower does not merge with another company and adopt a new name. Its formation in 2014 came from the merger of three retirement businesses under the umbrella of Great-West, based in Greenwood Village.
“I don’t know that we would merge with anybody,” Murphy said. “We’re more of an acquirer. So when we acquire a company, they typically take our brand.”
It’s a brand he wants to take to another level of recognition, using the stadium deal as a springboard.
Murphy graduated from St. Petersburg Catholic High School in Florida, just across the bay from Tampa. He saw how another company in the financial realm — Raymond James — transformed its visibility beyond the financial sector by putting its name on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ then-new stadium in 1998.
Two renewals ensure the Bucs’ stadium will remain Raymond James Stadium until at least 2027. Its name — and its shorthand among fans, “RayJay” — are a part of the team’s culture. The names roll off the tongue, in part because there is a sense of permanence to them.
Maybe now that can happen with the Broncos’ venue. Empower gets visibility. The Broncos get a naming-rights check, stability in the name of the team’s home and a partner that wanted for a long-term contract and “Mile High” to remain in the name.
“It was always a part of [Murphy’s] thinking that ‘Mile High’ would be a part of it so that answers that,” Broncos president and CEO Joe Ellis said.
Today, Empower Field at Mile High is just a name. If it sticks, it can mean something more — an identity for one of Denver’s most notable landmarks.
