Daikin Park is base for Houston Astros
19th November 2024
USA: Daikin Comfort Technologies North America has acquired the naming rights to the stadium of US Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Houston Astros.
The contract agreement will see the stadium being renamed Daikin Park for 15 years from January 1, 2025.
In what will be the first time that a Japanese company has acquired the naming rights to an MLB team’s home stadium, Daikin will work with the team to contribute to the Houston local community through educational and community programmes.
The Houston Astros was founded in 1962 and is a baseball team in the American League West Division. In recent years, the team has won the World Series in 2017 and 2022, as well as many league and division championships.
Japanese player Yusei Kikuchi will play for the team in the 2024 season. Previous players have included Norichika Aoki (2017) and Kazuo Matsui (2008-2010), among other Japanese players.
Daikin, whose main business is air conditioning, has over 22,000 employees across the group in the US. In 2017, the company invested approximately $500m to establish the Daikin Texas Technology Park. North America’s largest air conditioning production base, it provides jobs to approximately 10,000 people in the Houston metropolitan area.
The first game at Daikin Park will be an exhibition game between the Astros and the Sugar Land Space Cowboys (Astros’ Triple A affiliate) on March 24, 2025. The 2025 MLB regular season will open at Daikin Park on March 27 hosting the New York Mets.
