StarTex Enters Agreement for Naming Rights to Sugar Land Skeeters’ New Stadium

StarTex Power has entered into an agreement with the City of Sugar Land and the Sugar Land Skeeters for the naming rights and associated branding opportunities for the Skeeters' new Triple-A baseball facility, part of StarTex's continued focus on community-driven initiatives to support customer retention and acquisition.

Monetary terms for the 10-year agreement were not disclosed. Named StarTex Power Field, the facility will be a multi-purpose facility with 21 suites, upper level club seating, year-round entertainment space, a picnic deck, and extensive playground facilities. Groundbreaking is slated for the spring of 2011, and opening day is scheduled for April 2012.

The 10-year entitlement agreement includes a number of branding and promotional opportunities in addition to the naming rights, and also includes exclusivity for StarTex with regard to any retail electric advertising in the stadium.

Marcie Zlotnik, Chairman of StarTex Power, said that the naming rights for the new stadium represented a perfect opportunity to continue StarTex's Return the Favor Campaign, which emphasizes StarTex's community involvement to reward and build customer loyalty.

StarTex has over 70,000 customers in Fort Bend County and the surrounding area, and Zlotnik said that the stadium will bring a variety of benefits to the community, from economic development and jobs during the initial construction, to tax revenue from various events such as concerts which will attract visitors to the area. Aside from 70 regular season home games for the Sugar Land Skeeters, StarTex Power Field, with a capacity of up to 10,000, will host a multitude of other sporting events, concerts, group outings, and scout sleepovers.

Zlotnik told Matters that StarTex's top customer acquisition channel is customer referrals from existing customers, and said that the naming rights agreement further supports that channel by reinforcing StarTex's community involvement.

Such community involvement, and StarTex's emphasis as a neighbor selling power to neighbors, is also designed so that customers logging onto to Power to Choose, where StarTex is one of the most price competitive REPs, are already familiar with StarTex when confronted with 30 companies, most of which are not likely well-known to customers.

Launched this fall, StarTex's Return the Favor campaign has included an employee stock ownership plan, under which employees now own 30% of the company, and a guarantee that StarTex will not pass any new charges due to the nodal market on to customers, including customers above 50 kW not otherwise protected by the Substantive Rules.

With about two weeks of the nodal market now complete, Zlotnik confirmed that things are still running smoothly, and there have been no major issues from a retail market perspective.

StarTex serves more than 165,000 residential and commercial customers.