Grizzlies Are Taking Memphis Expressway

The name of your favorite team soon could be open to the highest bidder.

The Vancouver Grizzlies asked the NBA on Monday for permission to move to Memphis, Tenn., next season, lured in part by a financial package in which FedEx Corp. offered to buy the rights to name not only the arena but also the team.

The Memphis Express--assuming the NBA would approve that nickname--would be the first team named for a corporation in the four major North American sports leagues.

Grizzly owner Michael Heisley chose Memphis over Anaheim, Louisville, Ky., and New Orleans. The Charlotte Hornets also applied Monday to move to Memphis, reportedly as an option should Charlotte voters reject a June referendum for a new arena.

Japanese baseball teams, such as the Nippon Ham Fighters, often are named for corporations. European soccer teams typically wear uniforms with the name of a corporate sponsor in plain view, and a comparably tiny team logo virtually invisible to spectators and television audiences.

In the U.S., however, uniforms and team names have been off-limits to corporate cash in the four major sports leagues. Then again, the concept of a basketball team named for a delivery company may not offend fans who are increasingly used to stadiums and arenas named for companies rather than cities, teams or local heroes.

“It will be a matter of time,” said Envision president Jeff Knapple, who negotiated the $116-million naming rights agreement for Staples Center. “Just as the arenas are no longer sacred, the same will be true for the uniforms.”

Amid signs that ticket prices and television rights fees are reaching plateaus, selling their team name offers owners a new frontier for revenue.

“No owner, no matter how badly he feels that this might demean the NBA, is going to object,” said David Carter of the Sports Business Group in Redondo Beach, “because, ultimately, he may need the deep pockets of some corporation to bail him out or increase the financial value of his franchise.”

Within five to 10 years, Knapple said, he expects the NBA, NHL, NFL and major league baseball to relax restrictions against corporate nicknames. Even Monday, an NBA executive suggested the league would not object if FedEx proposed renaming the Grizzlies as the Memphis Express.

“If they want to name the team ‘The Express,’ I don’t think there’d be a problem,” the executive said. “If they wanted to name it ‘Federal Express,’ that could raise some concerns.”

FedEx executive vice president Michael Glenn warned against “jumping to the conclusion the team will be named the Express or any other name that FedEx may choose.”

While baseball fans reacted with revulsion to a recent proposal to sell ad patches on major league uniforms, sponsors increasingly have encroached onto uniform space and other areas traditionally free from ads, including corporate names designed into the ice on which NHL teams skate. Companies plaster their names on race cars and on the racing suits worn by drivers. Two-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong rides for the U.S. Postal Service cycling team.

FedEx spent $583.8 million on advertising during the three-year period that ended May 31, 2000, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Among its investments: sponsorship of the FedEx Orange Bowl in Miami, FedEx St. Jude Classic golf tournament in Memphis and FedEx CART championship auto racing series, and a reported $205-million deal over 27 years for naming rights to the home of the Washington Redskins, FedEx Field.

An NBA team plays 41 home games but generates news daily for at least seven months--longer if the team advances into the playoffs. So, analysts said, the company could get its name into the news every day by paying more to name the team rather than, or in addition to, the building where it plays.

The idea is not new, even in the U.S. The Mighty Ducks are named for a Disney movie, a company product if not the company itself. The old Detroit Neon indoor soccer team took the name of a Chrysler Corp. sedan.

“Instead of naming the stadium, name the team. It makes sense,” said Rick Burton, director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing School at the University of Oregon. “Why settle for just the building when you can have it all?”

Before FedEx made its offer to Heisley, the parent company of Kentucky Fried Chicken offered Heisley a 20-year sponsorship package reportedly worth $100 million if he would move the Grizzlies to Louisville, Ky., and rename them the Kentucky Colonels, a nod to the founder of the chicken chain as well as to the Louisville entry in the old ABA.

Heisley’s team might be headed to Memphis without him. Stern, the NBA commissioner, has asked Heisley and Hornet co-owners Ray Wooldridge and George Shinn to consider swapping teams, sources said. Heisley would run the Charlotte franchise and Wooldridge, who was born in Memphis, would run the franchise moving from Vancouver.

Wooldridge is unpopular in Charlotte, so Stern hopes new ownership would enhance the chances of voters financing a new arena.

Heisley, who picked Memphis in part because his team would not have to compete against an NFL team, so far is not interested, a source close to him said. Wooldridge told the Charlotte Observer he has not had a firm offer either on swapping teams with Heisley or on selling the Hornets to Charlotte interests. Although Memphis officials told the Commercial Appeal they had quietly talked with Wooldridge for weeks, Wooldridge told the Observer he applied for relocation only to preserve that option if the referendum fails.

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Times staff writers Mark Heisler and Greg Johnson contributed to this story.