Dunkin' Donuts is paying a fee to the Hartford Yard Goats to call the city's new minor league baseball stadium Dunkin' Donuts Park. The question is, how much -- and how much will the city actually get?
Josh Solomon owns the minor league team. He says he is bound by a confidentiality agreement with Dunkin'. But he guaranteed that the city will get no less than the $225,000 it has budgeted for naming rights revenue.
"In the event that there would be a shortage in the city's revenue compared to what was in their budget, the Yard Goats would make up the difference ensuring that the city would receive at least $225,000 a year," Solomon said. "But it could be more. I just am not at liberty to disclose the terms of the agreement."
Solomon said that the team gets the first $50,000 paid for the naming rights. After that, the rest gets split equally by the team the city.
The revenue is no small matter for the city. It borrowed the $60 million to build the stadium, and it owes bondholders more than $4 million a year. The city has said the money to pay those bonds will come exclusively from the revenue generated by the development project that includes the stadium.
But those figures, which the city says include a cushion, are already taking a hit. The legislature failed to act on a plan to pass admissions tax revenue to the city -- leaving, for the time being, a ten percent hole in the city's revenue projections.
