After nearly a decade, the Miami Marlins’ stadium finally has a corporate name.
Mortgage company loanDepot has acquired the rights in a multiyear deal, according to a source with direct knowledge.
Beginning this week, loanDepot Park will become the name of the Marlins’ ballpark.
loanDepot is a Foothill Ranch, California-based holding company which sells mortgage and non-mortgage lending products.
The Marlins are planning a Wednesday morning announcement. The team opens its season at 4 p.m. Thursday at home against Tampa Bay.
loanDepot, however, on Tuesday afternoon posted a photo on Facebook with a rendering of how the exterior of the ballpark could potentially look. In the post, loanDepot called the deal “a truly special milestone.”
Until recent weeks, both the Marlins’ previous ownership group and the current ownership had not been able to find a suitable naming rights partner since the ballpark opened in 2012.
Former owner Jeffrey Loria, who sold the team to Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter in August 2017, hoped to find a company willing to pay at least $5 million annually for rights, and that opportunity never came along.
The Sherman/Jeter ownership group spent more than three years looking for the right fit.
Terms of the deal were not revealed, but baseball naming rights deals differ widely in value.
On the most lucrative end of the spectrum: In 2016, SunTrust Bank agreed to pay the Braves $10 million per season (through 2042) for naming rights to the Atlanta stadium that opened in 2017.
On the flip side, Guaranteed Rate reportedly has been paying the Chicago White Sox only $2 million annually for naming rights to that stadium, through 2029.
Progressive Corporation pays $3.6 million per season to put its name on the Cleveland Indians stadium — a deal that began in 2008 runs through 2024.
And MinuteMaid pays $6.36 million annually to have its name on the Houston Astros stadium as part of a 28-year deal that expires in 2029.
Only eight big-league ballparks don’t name corporate names, most because of the tradition and rich history associated with their ballparks: Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium in Southern California; Fenway Park in Boston; Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City; Nationals Park in Washington; Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore; Wrigley Field in Chicago and Yankee Stadium in New York.
LoanDepot was founded in 2010 by entrepreneur Anthony Hsieh, who had previously founded mortgage companies LoansDirect.com which he sold to E*Trade, and HomeLoanCenter.com, which he sold to Lending Tree. It is reportedly the second largest non-bank provider of direct-to-consumer loans in the nation.
The Marlins’ announcement comes a week after FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, acquired names to the Miami Heat’s arena, replacing American Airlines. The Heat’s home will now be called FTX Arena.
Miami-Dade County negotiated that 19-year, $135 million deal with FTX. Conversely, the Marlins’ deal with the county allows the team to negotiate its own naming rights deal and retain the revenue.
The significant jump in the Marlins TV’s rights payment — from $20 million to more than $50 million annually — combined with the new revenue created from the stadium naming rights deal, should allow the team to increase its player payroll in future years.
Per spotrac.com, the Marlins’ $47.2 million 2021 big-league player payroll ranks fourth-lowest in baseball, though that’s largely a byproduct of the team having more than a dozen young players who haven’t yet become eligible for free agency.
