Caesars Entertainment acquired naming rights to the Superdome, home of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, in a 20-year, $138 million deal, according to documents issued to Louisiana lawmakers. 

The Saints’ lease for the Superdome gives the team naming rights, so Caesars will pay the franchise directly. The team will use the capital to fund stadium improvements.

The deal has been in the works for months but is now official following the expiration of the Superdome’s agreement with Mercedes-Benz last week. 

The luxury car brand became stadium’s first naming rights sponsor in 2011 — a 10-year deal worth between $50-$60 million. Mercedes-Benz also holds naming rights to the Atlanta Falcons’ stadium.

Huge naming rights deals have become rather commonplace in the NFL.

• U.S. Bank acquired naming rights to the Minnesota Viking’s stadium in 2015 in a 25-year, $220 million deal. 
• Allegiant Airlines inked a deal for naming rights to the Las Vegas Raiders’ stadium in 2019 that’s worth up to $25 million annually. 
• SoFi became the naming rights partner of the Los Angeles Chargers/Rams stadium last year in a 20-year, $400 million deal. 

The Superdome’s current $450 million renovation will be complete in time to host Super Bowl LVIII in 2024.

AT&T is offloading its media assets — but for now, those properties are paying dividends.

The company posted $44 billion in Q2 revenues on Thursday, a year-over-year boost of 7.6%, and only 2.2% below the pre-pandemic Q2 2019.

The company got a timely assist from the return of the NBA, which is key for WarnerMedia’s TNT and TBS. 

• WarnerMedia’s revenues rose to $8.8 billion, up 30.7% from Q2 2020.
• The NBA’s impact was reflected in WarnerMedia’s 48.5% growth in advertising revenue to $1.7 billion. 
• AT&T is in the process of spinning off WarnerMedia in a $43 billion merger with Discovery. DirecTV is selling $3.1 billion in junk bonds to expedite its own split from AT&T.

While the telecommunications giant is stepping away from owning media properties, it’s more than happy to be the support system for other major media players. AT&T is replacing T-Mobile as the Dish Network’s primary network services provider in a deal worth at least $5 billion. 

AT&T showed the strength of its core offering, adding 1.16 million regular wireless customers in the quarter. That figure nearly quadrupled the 300,000 expected by analysts.

ESPN renewed its contract with Major League Baseball in May for $3.85 billion over seven years, ditching rights to the league’s midweek broadcasts starting in 2022. Now those games are up for grabs.

MLB chief revenue officer Noah Garden revealed that the league is interested in selling the midweek games to a streaming service, potentially in the next few weeks, according to Sports Business Journal.

Garden says MLB wants to reach fans in a nontraditional way, following in the footsteps of other leagues.

• The NFL reached a 10-season, $10 billion deal with Amazon in March to stream “Thursday Night Football.”
• The WNBA signed a deal with Amazon to stream 16 regular-season games and the Commissioner’s Cup.
• LaLiga sold rights to Disney to stream games on ESPN+ for eight years.

ESPN shares midweek games with regional sports networks through this season, averaging 526,000 viewers for the four Wednesday games in June. “Sunday Night Baseball” averaged over 1.65 million viewers in May.

YouTube, NBC’s Peacock, and sports betting companies are reported targets for the midweek rights.

MLB extended its U.S. broadcasting rights with Turner in September in a seven-year, $3.2 billion deal. In 2018, the league struck a seven-year, $5.1 billion deal with Fox Sports.