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Naming rights hard sell in St. Lucie for Mets

Spring Training 2013A month before spring training starts and the name of the spring home of the New York Mets is up in the air, as the team and St. Lucie County are having a hard time selling naming rights to what’s now known as Mets Stadium.

The ballpark has been known by several different names over the years — Thomas J. White Stadium, Tradition Field, Digital Domain Park — and the most recent naming-rights holder, Digital Domain, bailed out of a $100,000/year deal after entering bankruptcy. That left county officials and the Mets front office to shop the naming rights (they split the proceeds), and so far there have been no buyers, though there have been a few nibbles. From TCPalm:

The Mets are the ones negotiating any naming rights deal, but [St. Lucie County commissioner Chris] Dzadovsky serves as a conduit between local companies and the Mets. He said approximately six local companies had been in contact with the Mets in some form.

“It would probably be a group that would really want the advertising side in New York or a developer here,” Dzadovsky said. “We did have a rumor that now that Tradition group is back in some form that they might be interested again, but I haven’t heard anything additional on that.”

The Digital Domain signage has been taken off the ballpark; no temporary signage has gone up.

The ballpark is both the spring home of the New York Mets and the regular-season home of the St. Lucie Mets (High Class A; Florida State League)

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