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The naming rights for the Carrier Dome could be worth $1 million annually.

(Stephen D. Cannerelli | scannere)

Syracuse, N.Y. — The naming rights for the Carrier Dome would likely be worth more than $1 million annually on the open market, according to a model created by three sports economists.

That's money that the Syracuse athletic department leaves on the table annually because of an archaic agreement between the school and the air conditioning company.

The deal that helped birth the Carrier Dome in 1979 is considered by many to be the first naming rights agreement in the history of college sports. It's also one that's grown worse as time has gone by and which the university likely is hoping to escape as it continues discussions about the future of the building.

That deal, announced by the school and Carrier on Feb. 15, 1979, named the stadium in exchange for a gift of $2.75 million, helping the school toward a fundraising goal of nearly $12 million. While the exact terms of the deal have never been publicized, it's been reported frequently that the deal is a lifetime agreement.

What was once an innovative fundraising idea, however, looks worse with each passing year, as more schools have begun selling naming rights for increasing prices.

"I'm a little reluctant to criticize them too much because they were innovative and came up with a new revenue stream," said Nels Popp, as assistant professor in sports management at North Carolina who headed the study. "Looking back, it was short-sighted to do the deal into eternity. But they needed the money to build the arena, they got it, and the Carrier Dome was built. You don't want to criticize it too heavily. But, looking back, they screwed up."

That much becomes clearer with each passing year, with the two most lucrative deals in college naming rights both coming since 2014.

The University of Washington signed the biggest naming rights agreement in all of college sports history last year, garnering an average of $4.1 million per season from Alaska Airlines for the name Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium.

The University of Illinois receives an average of $2 million annually thanks to its decision to rename its basketball arena the State Farm Center in 2014.

According to the study, performed by Popp, Northern Illinois professor Chad McEvoy and the University of Delaware's Tim DeSchriver, the average naming rights agreement in college sports is currently worth about $800,000 annually. Syracuse, meanwhile, has received what has worked out to an average of $78,571 from Carrier over 35-plus years.

Given those realities, their model estimated that the value of a new naming rights deal at the Carrier Dome would be more than $1 million annually, a number that Popp considers conservative.

Syracuse Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Kevin Quinn declined to comment on behalf of the university, while Carrier responded with a statement focused on its overall giving to SU. Neither side addressed the future name of the building directly.

"For more than four decades Carrier Corp. has been a proud supporter of Syracuse University, including our 1979 gift that enabled the development of the Carrier Dome and in turn provided us with exclusive naming rights," Carrier said in a statement. "Since 1979, Carrier has contributed $21 million to Syracuse University via the UTC Employee Scholar Program paying employee tuition, fees and books, through Carrier Dome and athletic event support, scholarships and other contributions, including a $1.5 million grant to establish the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Energy and Environmental Studies. We continue to remain in close contact with SU in collaboration on various projects and ways to continue supporting this outstanding institution."

The expert model looked at the current deals with details available to the public and tested 10 variables that had potential impact on the price. While the limited number of deals made the market hard to judge, it allowed the sports marketers to draw some conclusions.

In their study, Syracuse would benefit from being a basketball arena, rather than a football stadium. They also classified the Carrier Dome as a multi-tenant building because it is used year-round by multiple teams.

"A football stadium is in use maybe a dozen times per year," said McEvoy, formerly of Falk College and now a department chair at Northern Illinois. "Basketball arenas can be used more than 200 times. The Carrier Dome isn't technically a multi-tenant arena, but you do have multiple teams and sports there, and those generate more opportunities for a company."

On the negative side, Popp noted that the value of a Carrier Dome deal might be depressed by the fact that its name has become so ingrained in the area.

"The one negative piece there is whether a new name would catch on," Popp said. "It's kind of like the Boston Garden or Mile High Stadium (instead of TD BankNorth Garden or Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium)."

The deal was announced in 1979 with a news conference attended by former Syracuse Chancellor Melvin Eggers and former Carrier CEO Mel Holm, then a member of the Syracuse Board of Trustees.

In a news release, Eggers called Carrier "a wonderful neighbor to everyone in our community." Holm noted that "Syracuse has been good to Carrier. Our company has flourished here and we're proud to call this our home. This gift to the Stadium Fund is intended as a way of saying 'Thank you, Syracuse,' for all the support and cooperation that the community has given through the years."

At the time, the deal was met with dismay from a number of Syracuse students, who wanted the dome to be named after Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis, who died 16 years earlier from leukemia. The students criticized the university for selling out to corporate interests.

All of that has a sense of dry irony now, 37 years later. The removal of Carrier jobs from the area has contributed to Central New York's economic slide, while Syracuse's biggest mistake may have been selling out for such a minimal price.

That $2.75 million translates to $9.9 million in 2016 dollars, but it remains a pittance compared to current deals.

A pair of sports law experts, Michael McCann and Glenn Wong, said the ability to break the deal, or use a significantly renovated stadium as leverage to re-negotiate, would likely depend on the exact wording of the contract. Syracuse is still considering three options for the future of the building, a list that includes a new stadium, a renovation or a simple roof replacement.

Still, the Orange isn't the only school failing to capitalize financially.

Unlike professional sports, where naming rights are an automatic at all but the most historic venues, colleges have been less aggressive in perusing that option.

Historically, colleges have named buildings after prominent alumni or donors, and it would be deemed disrespectful to attach a commercial name after the fact. Athletic departments also walk a fine line between serving amateur athletes and operating as an all-out business, and each move toward capitalizing financially makes it harder to maintain the myth of the amateur athlete.

That reality has changed in recent years as many of the country's athletic departments continue to bring in record revenues and profits. Spending on coaching salaries, extra staff members and luxurious buildings has followed, generating competition among schools to have the biggest and the best.

Naming rights agreements still make up a relatively small percentage of all that revenue. Even without it Syracuse made an all-time high profit of $19.8 million on athletics during Fiscal Year 2014-15, according to federal Title IX forms, the sixth highest in the country. The school made $87.1 million in revenue and spent $67.4 million on athletics, according to the form.

Being able to forge a new naming rights deal would only add to the school's financial strength. Whether Syracuse's new plans for the Carrier Dome create an opportunity for that is just one more storyline to follow as the school approaches its decision.

"If your budget is $80 million then $1 million isn't that huge," Popp said. "But if you're someone working with sponsorships or donors and you get a gift of $1 million, your bosses are going to be pretty happy. If you're talking about $1 million, losing that isn't crippling. But if you're talking about $1 million annually, it starts to add up."