Wikipedia:April Fools/April Fools' Day 2023/Fenway Park naming dispute
On Thursday, October 12, 2023, FanDuel made an offer to rename Fenway Park to FanDuel Park for $120 million in a 20-year contract. Red Sox fans started a fundraiser to keep the name Fenway Park. The bidding continued for almost two weeks until October 24, when owner John Henry accepted FanDuel's bid of $540 million when FanDuel left out two important pages of the contract, resulting in an official name change but no change in advertising, merchandise, or even the name within the stadium itself or during televised games. On October 29, it was revealed that FanDuel's proofreader did this intentionally.
The original bid
[edit]Fenway Park is one of the last remaining professional sports stadiums in the United States not to be named after a company. FanDuel, a sports betting website, wanted to buy the rights to the stadium name, so it offered $120 million for a 20-year contract, similar to TD Bank's recent renewal of TD Garden, which was $100 million for 20 years. This occurred on October 12, which was during the first round (Division Series) of the postseason; the Red Sox did not make it to the playoffs.
The counteroffer
[edit]Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers sent out a tweet twelve minutes after the offer was made telling fans that if they could raise enough money to outbid FanDuel, they could keep the name Fenway Park. He told John Henry privately that this was so that FanDuel would be forced to increase their bid and the Red Sox would get more money from the advertising deal, although it was revealed two days later that Devers truly wanted the name to remain Fenway Park.
As this happened at 9:40 AM, when most people were at work, it took a few hours for most donations to come in. Dunkin' Donuts contributed $15 million to what would be known as "Team Fenway" at 10:02 AM, and by 8 PM, a combination of businesses, local donations, and a few non-local donations raised $41 million combined. FanDuel upped their bid to $140 million at 8 PM.
"Team Fenway", "Team FanDuel", and social media
[edit]On various social media platforms, #TeamFenway reached the #1 trend by October 13, while #TeamFanDuel reached #8. Most people supported "Team Fenway", referring to Fenway Park keeping its name.
Pew Research Center conducted a poll in the six New England states (Red Sox home territory), New York and New Jersey (Yankees territory), Maryland and California (other states with baseball fields that aren't named after sponsors), Florida, and Texas (large conservative states with baseball teams). The poll dates lasted from October 14 to October 20. The results were as follows:
| State | Fenway Park | FanDuel Park | Undecided |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | 89% | 4% | 7% |
| Maine | 84% | 6% | 10% |
| New Hampshire | 86% | 4% | 10% |
| Vermont | 90% | 3% | 7% |
| Rhode Island | 89% | 5% | 6% |
| Connecticut | 80% | 12% | 8% |
| New York | 55% | 29% | 16% |
| New Jersey | 59% | 23% | 18% |
| Maryland | 68% | 12% | 20% |
| California | 60% | 10% | 30% |
| Florida | 59% | 16% | 25% |
| Texas | 61% | 16% | 23% |
Most baseball fans supported Team Fenway, although there was some opposition in Yankees territory. Despite this, Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge voiced his support for Team Fenway on Twitter, TikTok, and Mastodon with the rationale that Yankee Stadium is also one of the few stadiums that isn't named by a corporation, and if the Red Sox are able to keep the name Fenway Park, it's likely that Yankee Stadium will also keep its name for the foreseeable future. As Mastodon is a blogging service, his statement there is the most detailed of the three social media platforms.
Aaron Judge @TheJudge44I know I'm a Yankee, but please donate to #TeamFenway. If corporate wins, our stadium is next.
October 15, 2023
The bidding war
[edit]From October 12 to October 28, many baseball fans from both within Red Sox territory and outside as well as some corporations and the Massachusetts state government contributed money to keep the name Fenway Park, while FanDuel kept upping their bid with a small amount of help from outsiders. John Henry said on October 16 that he would accept the highest bid after 24 hours of inactivity.
There were some joke bids. The first was Snoop Dogg offering $420,000 to rename to Snoop Dogg Stadium on October 20 with the intent of resetting the 24-hour window. John Henry then said only serious bids count with regard to the 24 hours but that the change would not apply retroactively. 50 Cent offered fifty cents. Elon Musk claimed to offer $1 billion, but he never created any paperwork to send to the Red Sox.
| Date [note 1] | Team Fenway | Team FanDuel |
|---|---|---|
| October 12 | $62 million | $140 million |
| October 13 | $177 million | $180 million |
| October 14 | $202 million | $240 million |
| October 15 | $224 million | $240 million |
| October 16 | $224 million | $300 million |
| October 17 | $254 million | $300 million |
| October 18 | $371 million [note 2] | $400 million |
| October 19 | $371 million | $450 million |
| October 20 | $383 million | $450 million |
| October 21 | $402 million | $510 million |
| October 22 | $422 million | $510 million |
| October 23 | $450 million | $510 million |
| October 24, noon | $450 million | $540 million |
| October 24, midnight | $450 million | $700 million |
Top contributors to Team Fenway
| Entity | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual contributions | $226 million |
| Commonwealth of Massachusetts | $100 million |
| University of Massachusetts System | $50 million |
| Dunkin' Donuts | $15 million |
| Other | $61 million |
Top contributors to Team FanDuel ($540 million bid)
| Entity | Amount |
|---|---|
| FanDuel | $492 million |
| Individual contributions | $33 million |
| Other | $15 million |
FanDuel boycott
[edit]Many sports bettors stopped using FanDuel and switched to competitors such as DraftKings when the bidding war started, as they did not want to support the renaming of Fenway Park. From October 12 to October 24, FanDuel's activity dropped 29%, and its stock dropped 18%. Activity and stock rebounded slightly after the bidding war was over but not to where it was before the bidding war.
DraftKings said in a statement that it would not support either side of the renaming war.
FanDuel's October 24 bid
[edit]At 7:44 AM on October 24, FanDuel bid $540 million, which is $27 million per year. However, Instagram influencer Jenna Moreno from Lynn, Massachusetts noticed slightly under two hours later that two pages of the contract were missing from FanDuel's bid, and if accepted, only the official name would change and nothing else. The merchandise and logos in the park, the television broadcasts, and the signage leading to the park would still be able to call it Fenway Park, resulting in effectively no change in name. Within an hour, #AcceptFanDuel was the number 1 trend on both Instagram and Twitter, and similar hashtags such as #FanDuelsFolly were prevalent. FanDuel later fixed its problem and upped its bid to $700 million ($35 million per year), but it was quickly pointed out that the owner is free to take any bid and doesn't have to take the highest. While still within the 24-hour window, John Henry accepted FanDuel's $540 million bid that changes the name and nothing else. Most Team Fenway fans were pleased at this decision, as it was effectively a win without having to pay.
The money sent by Team Fenway is in the process of being returned. There are some delays, and there are a few reports of people not getting their money back.
The erroneous document
[edit]FanDuel's $540 million bid document was viewed as suspicious, as the two pages that were omitted were exactly those that made winning the bid do effectively nothing. On October 29, FanDuel proofreader Amelia Swanson announced on Facebook that she intentionally changed the pagination of prior bids so that the relevant statements would be in their own two pages and then intentionally removed them for the October 24 bid. She was immediately fired, but she set up a GoFundMe for "saving the name of Fenway Park". While GoFundMe shut down the listing, she became well known to the general public and has received $880,000 as of November 1[needs update]. However, she also received one death threat, rumored to be from a FanDuel employee.
Aftermath
[edit]Most sports fans were satisfied with the result. Democrats and younger people were more supportive of the result than Republicans and older people, although approval was greater than disapproval among all demographics except frequent FanDuel bettors. However, some have warned that the removal of pages in the legal document only works once, and if another bidding war happens, the corporation will likely win. The bidding war does not seem to have discouraged other corporations from trying to name stadiums as Team Fenway had hoped.