If you still have trouble calling Gillette Stadium anything other than Foxboro, you may have wondered where the convention of renaming sporting institutions after corporations originally came from. The answer: although some New Englanders cling to the belief that the naming of Fenway Park at its opening in 1912 was connected to the promotional support it would give to part-owner John Irving Taylor’s Fenway Realty Company, it is more widely believed that the precursor to today’s naming-rights deals occurred in 1926 when chewing-gum magnate William Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs at the time, named the team’s stadium Wrigley Field. In the modern era, Portlanders hoping for a return to the title Foxboro Stadium are going to have to wait until the 2032 season to have a chance for that to happen (so start lobbying now).

In any case, hundreds of millions of dollars have been earned by sports franchises in naming-rights deals. The Portland Expo Building has not fallen prey just yet, but the minor league of the NBA, as of this year, has accepted the moniker of the NBA Gatorade League, affectionately known as the ‘G-League.’