#Who was pro player stadium named after full
#Who was pro player stadium named after pro

Sun Life Stadium is home now to the Miami Dolphins, Miami Hurricanes and the annual Fed Ex Orange Bowl. Plans were announced and have started taking place in 2014 for another renovation over the next two years with a completion in 2016. The Sun Life Stadium will replace seats and add a canopy over 92% of the fans in the stadium.3 'The modernization will include a weather canopy and upgrades to suites, premium seating and entertainment space, along with a redesign of the main seating bowl.'4 The renovation cost $400 million with most of the financing coming from county taxes. In 2005, Huizenga changed the name to Dolphin Stadium and began a $250 million renovation the next year. The stadium changed its name in 2009 to Land Shark Stadium and the most recent name change came in 2010 to what is now called Sun Life Stadium.

#Who was pro player stadium named after pro

In 1996, a renaming of the stadium had taken place with Pro Player, a Fruit of the Loom company, given the rights to call the stadium, Pro Player Stadium. Many companies now were using sponsorship money to put their names on stadiums and arenas across the nation.

#Who was pro player stadium named after full

In 1991, Major League Baseball announced that a new expansion team,Florida Marlins, would play in Joe Robbie Stadium starting in 1993. Although July of 1991, was the official announcement for South Florida's new Marlins team, seats were already being taken out and renovated in January. Huizenga took full ownership of the Dolphins and Joe Robbie Stadium in 1994. The XXIX Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and the San Diego Chargers became the second Super Bowl to be played in Joe Robbie Stadium. The stadium is undergoing massive renovations and is expected to be rewarded with a Super Bowl in the near future.Sun Life Stadium has played host many historic events throughout the past three decades. Groundbreaking took place in 1985 on what would initially be known as Joe Robbie Stadium. In August of 1987, the first of many games for the Miami Dolphins was played and the following year the first Major League Baseball game was played with an exhibition game between Los Angeles Dodgers and the Baltimore Orioles. In July of 1988, Rod Stewart, Hall and Oates, and Chicago gave a concert named 'Happy Birthday America, '88,' Super Bowl XXIII, was the first NFL Championship held at Joe Robbie Stadium in 1989.1

It's likely, though, that another corporation will take the chance. Yeah, remember that single season when the place was known as LandShark Stadium? LandShark Lager is still bottled and distributed nationally by Anheuser-Busch, so perhaps buying naming rights to the place is not a guaranteed curse. The lone exception is Jimmy Buffett's beer. So almost every company that has dared to pay to have its name slapped on the Miami Gardens sports park has had a bad run. The naming rights agreement, however, stuck around for four more years. In 2012, Sun Life exited the annuity business in the States and went back to dominating in Canada. Turns out, most Americans would not know that name. 'Sooner or later, you'll know our name,' was the ad's tagline. The company ran several ads pointing out it didn't take bailout money and poking fun at the idea of buying corporate naming rights. That's because the firm operated mostly in Canada.įollowing the financial crisis, Sun Life saw a chance to expand to America. Though one of the largest life insurance companies in the world, the name was unknown to most Americans. The nomenclature became 'Dolphins Stadium' for about a year, before dropping the 's' and becoming the singular 'Dolphin Stadium' for another three. Three years after buying the naming rights, Fruit of the Loom fell into bankruptcy, and in 2001, the Pro Player brand was liquidated.īut the place was known as Pro Player Stadium for four years after the brand ceased to exist.

Pro Player was the upstart sports-apparel division of tighty-whities manufacturer Fruit of the Loom. The stadium was known as Pro Player Park for a season and then Pro Player Stadium for several more. Pro Player eventually took the bait in 1996. It remained that way for nine seasons, but after Wayne Huizenga bought the team in the '90s, he began shopping around its naming rights. The place was originally opened as Job Robbie Stadium, named for the owner of both the team and stadium at the time. Let's hope the new sponsor can escape the curse of the stadium's previous namesakes. According to the Miami Herald, the Dolphins expect to have a new naming sponsor by next season. It was the park's seventh appellation in less than 30 years. ran out last month, so the era of calling it 'Sun Life Stadium' is over. The deal with Canadian-based Sun Life Financial Inc. The Miami Dolphins' stadium is currently nameless.