StubHub to replace Home Depot as sponsor of Carson sports venue
Home Depot Center, the 125-acre sports facility in Carson home to two Major League Soccer teams, will become StubHub Center in June.
Online ticket resale outlet StubHub, a subsidiary of EBay Inc., will replace retailer Home Depot as the name sponsor of the $150-million multiuse sports venue owned by entertainment giant AEG.
The duration and financial terms of the multiyear agreement were not disclosed. Home Depot paid $70 million for its 10-year sponsorship that is ending.
This is the first name sponsorship of a public venue for StubHub, said Danielle Maged, global head of partnerships and business development at the San Francisco company. The move is part of StubHub’s strategy to build relationships with teams playing the sport most people in the world call football. “We have been aggressively looking at soccer,” Maged said. “We want to grow internationally.”
StubHub recently struck an agreement to provide resale ticket services to fans of three Premier League soccer teams in England. The company, formed in 2000, also has agreements with more than 60 U.S. professional baseball, football, basketball, hockey and soccer teams, and some college squads.
StubHub became the exclusive secondary ticket provider for AEG venues and the company’s AXS Ticketing agency in November. Discussions at that time also led to the StubHub Center deal, said Shervin Mirhashemi, president of global partnerships for AEG.
“We’re extremely thankful for Home Depot and what they have done,” Mirhashemi said, “and now we are really excited about moving on and rebranding the facility going forward.”
The first event at StubHub Center will be the June 19 soccer match between the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Portland Timbers. Soccer team Chivas USA is also based at the center.
The venue, on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills, includes a 27,000-seat soccer stadium, an 8,000-seat tennis stadium, a 2,450-seat indoor velodrome and a 2,000-seat track and field facility.
