Government
The Ugly Fight Behind One of Football's First Stadium-Naming Rights Deals
It took lawyers and 10 years of arguing before the Buffalo Bills finally acknowledged the frozen food company sponsoring their home.
Eager to move out of their crumbling confines, the Buffalo Bills spent much of the 1960s off the field demanding a new, publicly-financed stadium. They were finally granted one in 1972, but the deal came with a condition: it would be named after a non-dairy coffee creamer.
Long before Levi’s, M&T Bank, and FirstEnergy stadiums, there was Rich Stadium, one of the very first NFL facilities to sell its naming rights. Though naming rights are taken for granted as part of any stadium financing package today, it took multiple lawsuits before Bills ownership finally acknowledged the building’s legal name.