The naming rights to the main parking garage connected to the soon-to-open FedExForum have been sold to Ford Motors Co., according to a published report.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The arena will be home to the National Basketball Association’s Memphis Grizzlies.
“We think this may, in fact, be the first parking garage that has naming rights to it,” Mike Redlick, Grizzlies VP-sponsorship sales, told The Memphis Commercial Appeal.
The garage, which has 1,500 parking spaces over five levels; each level will be named for a Ford product: F-Series, Expedition, Explorer, Mustang and Five Hundred, which is a mid-sized sedan that will go on sale in September.
The Grizzlies organization also has talked with potential partners about naming-rights opportunities with the practice court facility and the more than 30,000-square-foot plaza area, which will be a forum for public meetings and a venue for concerts before the games, Redlick said.
The Grizzlies also have a new logo and color scheme, which will be used for all on- and off-court marketing identity, and the hiring of a new ad agency for its inaugural season in the building.
Memphis-based Chandler Ehrlich is the team’s new advertising agency. The firm will be charged with promoting the Grizzlies’ new home, increasing the drive to sell season tickets and building upon the excitement established by last season’s 50-win and playoff season.
The team will officially unveil its new uniforms, logo and merchandise today outside its renovated team store. The logo, which the team said represents strength, power and courage, was unofficially released last month after it appeared on a few sports-logo Web sites.
The color scheme of Memphis Midnight, Beale Street Blue, Smoke Blue and Grizzlies Gold and the neon-inspired typeface of the city name were put in place to represent this city and this game, the team said.
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