Naming rights and wrongs

Published September 12, 2026 7:37am ET | Updated September 12, 2026 7:37am ET



Lincoln Financial Group paid for the naming rights of the Philadelphia Eagles’ stadium, while Citizens Bank slapped its moniker on the Phillies’ ballpark. The 76ers and the Flyers play at the former Wells Fargo Center, now called the Xfinity Mobile Arena.

Right across the river in Brooklawn, New Jersey, where the boys and girls of Alice Costello Elementary School play dodgeball at recess, sits a slightly humbler venue: the ShopRite of Brooklawn Gymnasium, so named back in 2001. Brooklawn was perhaps the first public school district to sell naming rights to a corporate entity. It wasn’t the last.

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