Field at Dodger Stadium gets a sponsor name for first time in history of MLB's third-oldest ballpark
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The field at Dodger Stadium has a sponsor name for the first time in the history of the third-oldest ballpark in the major leagues. Uniqlo Field was unveiled Wednesday on the eve of the Los Angeles Dodgers opening their bid for a third straight World Series championship. They begin the season Thursday by hosting the Arizona Diamondbacks in the start of a three-game series.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto , the star of World Series Game 7, starts for the Dodgers. He is among three Japanese stars on the team, along with Shohei Ohtani and Roki Sasaki . “Every one of us has become fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers because of the outstanding performances of Japanese players,” company founder Tadashi Lanai said through a translator.
Uniqlo is a Japan-based apparel retailer with over 2,400 stores, including a strong presence in its home country, Asia, Europe and Canada. It has nearly 80 U. S.
stores, primarily in malls, with aggressive expansion plans. It's the first major sports sponsorship for Uniqlo in the U. S.
, and took nearly a year to negotiate, according to Koji Lanai, senior executive officer for Fast Retailing, the parent company of Uniqlo. He is the son of Tadashi Lanai, known as Japan's richest man with a net worth of nearly $62 billion. The deal places Uniqlo's red-and-white signage in various locations around the stadium, including the batter's eye in center field, on the facade beneath the press box and on the grass along the baselines.