The Wellesley Sports Center, now looking to open its doors in August, has sold naming rights to a Dallas-based healthcare network that won’t be including Wellesley in the name.
The Rte. 9 venue formally will become the Boston Sports Institute, a Steward Family Facility. While that does roll off the tongue, we’re thinking The Stew, for short.
Privately-held Steward Health Care, which owns a few dozen hospitals in Massachusetts and beyond, is known for being tightlipped about its financials. So not surprisingly, neither the length nor value of this naming deal is being disclosed. But the business clearly has already gotten its money’s worth by being mentioned here a few times. The shaving company that has its name on the field where the Patriots play in Foxborough is said to be paying between $6M and $20M a year for the honor.
(Speaking of which, The Swellesley Report, a Brown Family Publication, is open to naming rights deals, such as for popular pages and features like Wellesley Business Buzz, Wellesley Police Log, Where to Eat page.)
Steward will operate a roughly 7,000 sq. ft., physical therapy/strength/conditioning practice within the sports center. That resource should come in handy for those who get banged up on the skating rinks, in the pools or on the turf field at the facility, or for those looking to boost their conditioning in an effort not to get so banged up.
Ground was broken for the sports center back in late 2017 on property acquired by the town of Wellesley and once occupied by St. James the Great church.
Also note that the arena is looking to fill what many claim is a dream job: driving a zamboni.
MORE: A kid’s take on the Wellesley Sports Center: Logos, locker rooms, Zambonis & more
As a Wellesley resident, this is disappointing. Are there any programs for Wellesley residents beyond those for the schools?
There will be, details yet to be shared
This whole project has been suspicious from the beginning. What benefits if any are going to be offered to the locals?
Given that they’ve sold naming rights to absolutely everything, one would hope that some of these profits go into subsidizing costs for the families, and particularly children of the town.
Hopefully the owners understand that for this to be sustainably profitable they will need the continued support of multiple generations of townsfolk, price gauging will simply alienate an awful lot of locals.
Given no prices have been provided despite repeated requests, I’m not holding my breath!!
Nonsense. Let’s just call it the Wellesley Sports Center and be done with it.
Forget the cute shortened names like
The Stew. Who cares what rights they own, Wellesley owns the land.
Nonsense. Let’s just call it the Wellesley Sports Center and be done with it.
Forget the cute shortened names like
The Stew. Who cares what rights they own, Wellesley owns the land.
SAD! I thought Wellesley owns it! I have should have known it when Wellesley boys and girls hockey couldn’t have their own locker rooms!!!
St. James the Inordinate?
My family have decided to call it The Valdez , aka Exxon Valdez=an unwanted,oversized hulk that should never have come near here in the first place !
Very funny! Hopefully it won’t sink -financially…!
It will always be the MegaPlex to me.
I personally call the garden the garden rather than the bank name garden (even though it’s not the old garden), though not much getting around gillette stadium, which I’m sure I never called CMGI field or whatever it was called before that.
Does Steward know the athletic center is not in Boston?
While The Stew is catchy, why is it not called The Wellesley Sports Center or Complex, isn’t that is what it is? Who is the Steward family? Can’t the community name its own facility? How much did Wellesley receive from the Steward Family to allow them to stick their name on it? I am not favorably impressed by this fancy name. Why not The Wellesley Sports Center??
The town does not own the facility…they own the land it is on and the company building the facility is leasing the land from the town…everything is up for sale…logos, locker rooms, naming rights, they are in it to make money
Gross.