The stadium, which is half way complete and is due to open in April 2004, will be known as Petco Park after the pet store chain signed a 22-year deal for an undisclosed sum.
"When we negotiate business deals whether it's a TV contract or a radio contract or our signage deals, we don't necessarily go into all the financial terms of every deal that we do," said Padres president and COO Dick Freeman.
"From our perspective between the two of us (PETCO and the Padres) we just thought it was one of those things that no matter how we presented it, no matter what we said about it, in some way it maybe could be used in a way that was not exactly a positive.
"We thought this was the best way to approach it," Freeman added. "In all honesty this is a real positive day for us from the standpoint of the image, the ballpark, the whole thing. My hope would be that everything didn't get focused on the financing, that we would be talking about marketing opportunities, the relationship and a San Diego company that really people may not know too much about.
"I wouldn't be nearly as happy today if I didn't think it was a good contract from the Padres standpoint."
The Padres became the fourteenth Major League Baseball team to sell naming rights. The average cost for the others has been between $1.1 million to $2.5 million a year. The terms have ranged from five to 30 years.
