On Friday, Rangers majority owner Bob Simpson said that the team is pursuing a sale of naming rights for Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The stadium was christened with the name “The Ballpark in Arlington” in 1993. The Ballpark in Arlington was built with several features that paid homage to classic stadiums, including a Green Monster in left field, Bunting representing Yankee Stadium in center, and a home run porch in right that was inspired by Tiger Stadium. The idea behind the name was to recognize the city of Arlington and follow the classic theme, but the name never really caught on.

In 2004, Tom Hicks ironically sold the stadium’s naming rights to subprime lender Ameriquest, three years before the US housing bust, and six before Hicks’ organization declared bankruptcy itself. The original deal was for 30 years and $75 million, but was ultimately cancelled in 2007 by the organization due to the lender’s financial troubles.

After nullifying the Ameriquest contract and the godawful bell that accompanied it, the stadium was renamed the rarely-spoken mouthful, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Since then, the team’s success has generated significant attention, ambitions of higher payrolls, and a golden opportunity to cash in with a naming rights deal.

Simpson said that Texas expects to increase its payroll to close to $150 million over the next few years, and that a stadium deal is one step to making that goal feasible.

Given the Rangers success over the past two seasons, it would seem greedy to wait any longer. For some perspective, The University of North Texas recently struck a football stadium naming rights deal with campus network provider Apogee for 20 years and $20 million. It stands to reason that the Rangers could generate gobs of money by inking a contract in the near future.

Typically, naming rights deals involve local B2C (business-to-consumer) corporations. There should be numerous sponsorship options should the Rangers follow that model. Some DFW companies that could be interested include:

• Dr. Pepper
• Exxon-Mobil
• Kimberly-Clark (Kleenex, Kotex, Huggies…probably not a good fit for obvious reasons)
• Gamestop
• Blockbuster
• American Airlines
• JC Penney
• Southwest Airlines
• Frito-Lay
• Brinker International (Chili’s)
• Radio Shack
• Research in Motion (Blackberry; US Headquarters)
• XTO Energy

XTO / Exxon-Mobil could be interesting because that was Simpson’s former company. In 2009, he sold XTO to Exxon, and used some of his proceeds to purchase the Rangers. If I were to guess, I would think Southwest, Dr. Pepper, and Exxon seem most realistic due to current relationships.