HOUSTON — Minute Maid Park is no more.
On Monday morning, the Houston Astros announced their ballpark’s new naming rights agreement with Daikin Industries, ending a naming association with Minute Maid that stretched back to 2002.
The stadium will be called Daikin Park beginning in January 2025. Based in Osaka, Japan, Daikin is the world’s largest air conditioning company and will be the fourth name attached to Houston’s 25-year-old downtown baseball stadium. Owner Jim Crane said Daikin’s naming rights will last for the next 15 years.
Originally known as Enron Field upon its opening in 1999, the stadium briefly became “Astros Field” in February 2002 following Enron’s accounting scandal and bankruptcy. That June, the team entered into a 30-year naming rights partnership with Minute Maid. Reports at the time approximated the deal as worth more than $100 million.
Minute Maid Park debuted during the second half of the 2002 season. During the subsequent 22 years, the ballpark hosted five World Series, the 2004 All-Star Game and witnessed the Astros win three American League pennants.
Two of the most memorable hits in Houston baseball history occurred at Minute Maid Park: Jose Altuve’s pennant-winning home run during Game 6 of the 2019 ALCS and Yordan Alvarez’s go-ahead, three-run home run in the Astros’ World Series-clinching win in 2022.
Minute Maid will continue to be a team partner through 2029.
(Photo of Minute Maid Park before Game 1 of the 2024 Wild Card Series: Alex Bierens de Haan / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
