Washington lost its stadium naming rights deal. Now what?

When FedEx decided last week to end its stadium namingrights agreement with the Washington Commanders two years early, it left the team in an uncertain position. The Commanders are still years away from moving into a new venue. They lost more than $15 million in revenue from the remainder of that deal — and they’re without a marquee brand name for their well-worn home in Landover.

The team now has three options: It can find a partner to put its name on the Landover stadium as well as the new building, try to land a shorter-term agreement to cover the remaining life of the current stadium or go without a partner for the rest of the time in Landover to maximize the value of a deal for the next stadium.

“It can be very difficult to find a naming-rights partner for a short period of time,” said Brian Socolow, an attorney who is the co-chair of the sports practice at the firm Loeb & Loeb. “If you are that potential naming-rights partner, you’re looking at still paying a significant amount of money and … the value might disappear if you don’t continue to partner. You’ve invested in that asset, and you haven’t necessarily gotten a lot of value for it.”

A shorter deal might mean the team would have to change partners multiple times, which would dilute the brand awareness and lower the value of each subsequent deal. On the other hand, the situation could open up opportunities for smaller regional companies.

But Washington’s namingrights free agency may have come at a good time. Naming-rights deals for new stadiums have become increasingly lucrative,