The Houston Astros Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise has announced a new 15-year partnership with the North American arm of Japanese air conditioner manufacturer Daikin, that sees the electronics brand become the new title sponsor of the team’s home ballpark.
The 41,168-capacity ballpark has been known as Minute Maid Park since 2002 as part of a long-running tie-up with the titular juice brand.
The Daikin Park renaming will take effect on January 1, 2025, will run from the 2025 campaign through the end of the 2039 season, and will come with both exterior and interior signage among other partnership benefits.
Astros senior vice-president for corporate partnerships and special events Matt Brand has stated: “Daikin fit all of the criteria we set out to find in a naming rights partner.
“Their name and reputation fit our iconic downtown Houston home, and their values mesh perfectly with those of the Astros. We are grateful to partner with the entire Daikin team and to help them succeed in their business goals. Daikin Park will be a special place for our fans for many years to come.”
Daikin North America is based just outside Houston, and has 10,000 employees In the area.
Minute Maid’s association with the arena (often known as the Juice Box to fans) has coincided with the most successful period in franchise history (2017-22) when the team won the American League four times and won two World Series.
So strong is the affiliation and positive association between the Astros and Minute Maid that Daikin will likely have a hard time supplanting the former name in the eyes of many fans.
Jim Crane, Astros owner, added: “We hope to make [the Daikin] name present and popular around town.
“They’re truly a world-class organization. We strongly believe that Daikin shares the values of business excellence, employee engagement and commitment to the community and are perfectly aligned with the Astros. And this partnership brings two very great brands together.”
That said, Coca-Cola-owned Minute Maid brand will remain a sponsor of the team despite losing the stadium naming rights.
Minute Maid stepped in for the rights to the stadium’s name after Enron, the energy giant that had agreed a $100 million 30-year naming deal upon the venue’s opening in 2000, collapsed in 2001.
The MLB is a major draw in Japan, where baseball is a prominent sport, thanks in part to the influence of Japanese stars such as Shohei Ohtani currently and Ichiro Suzuki in the past on the US league.
So popular in fact was the 2024 World Series (won by Ohtani’s LA Dodgers), that Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV came under fire after airing it in the same time slot as the domestic Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league.
According to reports, four games of the World Series - 1, 2, 4, and 5 - were shown in primetime at the same time as Japan Series action was taking place live.
The Astros qualified for the postseason as the winner of the American League West division, boasting the third-best record in the American League conference, but were knocked out by the underdog Detroit Tigers in the Wild Card round.
Daikin’s most prominent sports sponsorship prior to this was in the world of handball, where it became the title sponsor of Germany’s Handball Bundesliga in January 2024, having first partnered with the league the previous May.
