Dodgers fans, don’t worry. Dodger Stadium field naming rights is just business

Outraged the Dodgers sold the naming rights to their home field?

Don’t be.

Just be glad that when the Dodgers unveiled a red Uniqlo sign behind the center field wall on Wednesday, they also didn’t announce plans to change the name of the franchise to the Los Angeles Shoheis.

That’s not to say it won’t feel strange to hear Joe Davis open SportsNet LA broadcasts by saying the team will play that night on Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium.

In the 64 years the Dodgers have played in Chavez Ravine, they have been associated with a number of iconic brands. But none of them were afforded the opportunity to have the field at Dodger Stadium to be named after them.

Sandy Koufax didn’t pitch on Unocal 76 Field. Steve Garvey didn’t round the bases on the Farmer John’s Diamond.

Your father’s Dodgers didn’t play on a field bearing the name of a multinational company. But that’s the point. These aren’t your father’s Dodgers.

Because if they were, they wouldn’t be the most dominant baseball franchise of the last decade. They wouldn’t be the two-time defending World Series champions. They might even stink, fielding stopgaps at the multiple positions for budgetary reasons the way they did when they were owned by Frank McCourt.

The Dodgers are a business.

Whether their business practices are appropriate is a legitimate question. They might be a privately owned company, but they are also a civic institution and that comes with responsibilities they have chosen to ignore at times.

What can’t be brought into question, however, is how their business model has improved their on-field product. To their credit, the Dodgers are reinvesting their profits. The team’s net revenue was estimated by Sportico to be $855 million in 2024. The following season, they fielded a team that cost more than $586 million, including luxury tax penalties, according to Spotrac. The season ended with the Dodgers winning their second consecutive World Series.

The Dodgers enter Opening Day with a $538 million team, and that figure will almost certainly increase over the season.

Their on-field victories are inextricably linked to how they operate their franchise.

The inability to separate the baseball team from the boardroom has elicited conflicting feelings in many fans — and understandably so. As mentioned above, the franchise has made decisions that have alienated segments of its fan base.

The current iteration started with a 25-year, $8.35 billion broadcasting rights deal with Time Warner (now Charter Communications). The transformative deal came with a major downside, which was that 70% of Southern California households didn’t have access to the team-owned regional sports network. Six years passed before the channel gained widespread distribution.

But the team won.

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Ticket prices have continually escalated under Guggenheim’s watch, with the Los Angeles Times reporting last year that the estimated cost for a family of four to watch a game at Dodger Stadium to be a league-high $399.68.

But the team won, and, by the way, more than 4 million fans visited Dodger Stadium last year.

The arrival of Shohei Ohtani opened the floodgates for Japanese sponsors to pour into Dodger Stadium. That one of them would pay big bucks to slap their name on the field was a matter of time.

The Dodgers might have crossed a line by striking this deal with Uniqlo, but that was nothing more than an extension of their already-established philosophy. It makes no sense to complain about Uniqlo Field after welcoming the changes that have taken place over the last 14 years.

Fans can be upset. That’s their right. But if they’re going to be upset that the most treasured parcel of real estate is now named after a Japanese clothing company, they should be upset with everything the Dodgers have done — the television debacle, the ticket prices, as well as the championships that were won as a result.