Fan backlash to new Astros ballpark sponsor is sorely misplaced, if understandable

The news that the Houston Astros' home ballpark was being renamed to Daikin Park starting in 2025 caught a lot of fans off guard, to be sure. While stadium sponsors being impermanent is hardly unique to Houston, no baseball fan thinks that their team's stadium signifier is going to change until it does. The Astros have a business to run, and changing the stadium's name could, and should, be among the best ways for them to garner a simple profit.

Unfortunately, stadium name changes can also bring some of the most unhinged takes from fans who long for the days when there were no stadium sponsors and a stadium's name was the name and nothing should change.

For the Astros, the response to going from a beloved moniker in Minute Maid Park to Daikin Park has been no exception.

Astros fans may not like it, but Houston being willing to change stadium sponsors makes loads of sense

The takes have been coming thick and fast in response to the news of the name change, and the replies to the above tweet are a nice microcosm of the mess. Most fans don't have any familiarity with Daikin as a company. Some fans have committed to calling the park Minute Maid or The Juice Box until their dying breaths. Others have taken the deeper cuts that it will always be Enron Field and/or that Jim Crane should sell the team for such a "horrific" change. Never change, internet. Never change.

Here is the problem with the negative response to the change. Stadium sponsorships are about the team making money and, in theory, that money will help the Astros finance contracts like the one they are trying to give Alex Bregman right now.

What incentive does a company like Coca-Cola/Minute Maid have to give Houston the best deal if they think they can't be replaced because baseball fans are hesitant to change? Sorry, but I doubt that orange juice sales in Texas are going to change much either way, whether or not "Minute Maid" is on the stadium marquee.

At the end of the day, the Astros should go with the best deal possible for them within reason. Daikin isn't some weird crypto scam website. It's not going to be Ashley Madison Field from hereon out. They are an air conditioning company that has been moving a chunk of their operations to the Houston area for a few years now and want to expand their brand visibility. This feels like a win-win sponsorship deal, even if fans don't realize it quite yet.

And yes, you can still call it what you want.

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