PACERS

Bankers Life Fieldhouse will soon get new name: 'You've got to make sure it's a fit here'

Dakota Crawford
IndyStar
Fans gather outside Bankers Life Fieldhouse before the start of the Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks first-round Eastern Conference playoff game, Saturday, April 19, 2014, in Indianapolis.

Bankers Life Fieldhouse, known as Conseco Fieldhouse from 1999-2011, will soon get yet another name.

Once its naming rights contract is up in June 2019, CNO Financial Group will not extend its partnership with Pacers Sports & Entertainment. In a news release Tuesday, the company's chief executive officer said the partnership would continue, but in a more limited capacity.

When the deal was initially struck between the Pacers and Conseco, in April 1998, an IndyStar source estimated the price tag at $2 million a year for the 20-year contract. That deal included $55 million more for a separate sponsorship, bringing the total commitment to $95 million.

These agreements have only become more lucrative since.

"It's basically, how do you get eyeballs on your brand," said Butler associate marketing professor Daniel H. McQuiston. "You think about the Houston Astros with Minute Maid Park, for example.

"How often is Minute Maid Park going to be referenced in the media over the course of a season. How many thousands of times?"

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Even at today's prices — Lucas Oil's deal signed with the Colts in 2006 was worth $121.5 million for 20 years — a stadium deal is cheap exposure compared to, say, a Super Bowl commercial that costs millions of dollars for seconds of airtime. So, McQuiston figures the Pacers knew this was coming and will have a line of suitors eager to invest.

The Bankers Life name change came in 2011 after Conseco had been through financial turmoil. CNO Financial Group eventually sold off the Conseco Life subsidiary that Steve Hilbert headed before it slipped into bankruptcy.

Conseco Life's problems included charges by Florida and Iowa insurance regulators in 2009 that the company misled customers and underfunded their policies; a $750,000 fine in 2007 by Iowa's insurance division; and a class-action lawsuit filed in 2004 by policyholders that alleged fraud in the sale of universal life policies.

McQuiston pointed out, too, that enduring that kind of scandal can be damaging for a team's reputation. So, there's more to this search than dollar signs.

"You've got to make sure it's a fit here," he said. "It was an embarrassment when Conseco went belly up. That happened pretty hard and pretty fast, so all of a sudden, it quietly became Bankers Life.

"You've got egg on your face when that happens, so you've got to make sure it's a good fit."

You can find IndyStar Sports producer Dakota Crawford on Twitter: @DakotaCrawford_.

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