Potomac Nationals owner on field naming rights deal, his continued search for a new team home, and hopes for changeover on the Board of Supervisors

WOODBRIDGE — When the Potomac Nationals announced Northwest Federal Credit Union bought naming rights for the field at Pfitzner Stadium, many asked:

• Is that allowed, as the team leases the stadium from the county?
• We thought the team was having trouble finding a naming rights sponsor, which permitted them from building a new stadium?

We asked to review the lease contract between the county and the team, and it not only permits the team from selling its own advertising, but the county is also allowed to, in exchange for promotion in the stadium, enable local originations to underwrite events. Those exhibitions must take place before March 15 and after September 15, or shortly after should the team make the playoffs.

As for the team, the county must approve of all advertising displayed in its stadium. And, such approvals “shall not be unreasonably withheld,” according to the contract.

The county also requires one billboard advertising the county during the regular season, per the contract.

Potomac Nationals Owner Art Silber said no one from the county had questioned the new field sponsor at the Pfitz, Northwest Federal Credit Union.

“This is a wonderful agreement, with a very high-quality entity, for a relatively short-term period,” said Silber.

Short term because the current lease expires at the end of December 2018. However, it includes the option of two 12-month extensions that would allow the team to remain at the Pfitz through 2020.

Silber again in an interview on Thursday, as he did much of 2017, repeatedly noted the failures of Pfitzner Stadium behind the Prince William County Government Center in Woodbridge, calling it “below Minor League Baseball standards,” and one of the “worst facilities in the league.”

Before Silber’s failed bid to work out a deal with the Prince William County Board of Supervisors on a $35 million taxpayer-backed stadium at Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center in Woodbridge, he was going to build a stadium without the help of taxpayers when the project was first announced in 2012.

But the team failed to find a naming sponsor for the stadium, which Silber says would have netted $1 million or more annually. In 2016, he gave up on searching for such a sponsor.

It’s important to note that the stadium will still be called Richard G. Pfitzner Stadium, and the new naming rights apply to only the field inside the structure, now dubbed Northwest Federal Field. While Silber wouldn’t disclose what Northwest Federal paid for the naming rights to Pfitzner field, the amount is lower what it would be if the credit union was sponsoring a stadium.

“You can’t even being to equate the two points,” said Silber.

If he had is own stadium, Silber said there would be opportunities for corporations to sponsor everything from the entrance gate, ticket office, to the club seats.

And, he’s still on the hunt for such a stadium in Prince William County despite the loss at Potomac Town Center — something he said last year was a no-brainer, win-win for the community. However, it won’t be at Potomac Town Center, and he’s not ready to make any announcements on a possible location until after the 2019 Board of Supervisors election.

“I’m waiting for the next election because I hear there might be some change and that we’ll see some of these less-reasonable members of the Board leave and are replaced by people with a little more intellect,” said Silber.

He declined to name names.