AirHogs baseball stadium named QuikTrip Park at Grand Prairie
By JON NIELSEN / The Dallas Morning News

Grand Prairie's new baseball stadium has a name: QuikTrip Park at Grand Prairie.

The Grand Prairie AirHogs minor league team inked a 10-year deal with QuikTrip Corp. to have the Tulsa, Okla., company's brand on the $20 million stadium.

Terms of the agreement were not available Tuesday.

"One of the big selling points for us was to have all 50 locations in the D-FW market to help us brand our name and logo out there," AirHogs president Mark Schuster said about the deal with QuikTrip.

The company operates more than 500 gasoline and convenience stores in nine states.

The AirHogs belong to the independent American Association of Professional Baseball, which also includes the Fort Worth Cats. The AirHogs will play 48 regular-season home games. Their home opener will coincide with the grand opening of the new stadium May 16.

The stadium, funded by an eighth-cent sales tax approved by Grand Prairie voters last year, is owned by the city-commissioned Grand Prairie Sports Corp. It features permanent seating for 5,445 fans, a sports bar, restaurant and swimming pool.

It also has a 15,000-square-foot kid zone complete with a climbing wall, whiffle ball field and playground.

When not used for ballgames, the stadium will play host to concerts, festivals and community activities.

From Dallas' American Airlines Center to Houston's Minute Maid Park, sports venues often link up with companies as part of their marketing strategies. In nearby Arlington, the Dallas Cowboys are in discussions with several companies about naming rights for their new $1.1 billion football stadium.

QuikTrip officials say the deal with the AirHogs is a great opportunity.

"Minor league baseball has been a key component of our sports marketing program for several years," Jim Denny, QuikTrip's vice president of marketing, said in a written statement. "We've been impressed with the quality of the new facility and with the professionalism of the AirHogs' organization."