O'Connell's Off Topic

Oklahoma City's Bricktown ballpark to see sixth name
The Oklahoma City RedHawks are set to host a news conference Wednesday to announce a new name for RedHawks Field in Bricktown. Sources have said the ballpark's naming rights were sold to the Newcastle Casino.
By Steve Lackmeyer | Published: April 3, 2012

The Oklahoma City RedHawks will host a news conference Wednesday to announce RedHawks Field in Bricktown will be renamed after a casino.

Sources have told The Oklahoman the team's owner, Los Angeles-based Mandalay Sports Entertainment, sold the ballpark's naming rights for an undisclosed sum to the Newcastle Casino and the new name will be Newcastle Field at Bricktown. The renaming also will result in the Oklahoma City ballpark being named after the town of Newcastle.

Representatives of Mandalay could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.

The name will mark the fifth name change for the ballpark since it was built and paid for by city taxpayers in 1998 as part of the original Metropolitan Area Projects. Control of the ballpark's name was granted as part of a lease signed by the Oklahoma City Council in 1998.

The first name, Southwestern Bell Park, was withdrawn by the team's previous owners after it was met with public criticism. The naming rights deal stayed intact, however, as the team quickly and successfully revised the name to Southwestern Bell Bricktown Ballpark.

That name changed twice as the company morphed into SBC and then AT&T.

The naming rights deal ended after the team was sold to Mandalay in 2010 and the ballpark was renamed RedHawks Field.

The naming rights deal comes two weeks after operators of the Newcastle Gaming Center announced it was being renamed the Newcastle Casino.

The casino, owned by the Chickasaw Nation, opened 13 years ago and boasts it is the state's fifth largest casino with more than 2,300 electronic gambling machines.

Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-citys-bricktown-ballpark-to-see-sixth-name/article/3663312#ixzz1r2wkupaX