PORT ST. LUCIE — Movies meet The Show.

Tradition Field became Digital Domain Park on Tuesday after Digital Domain Holdings, the New York Mets and St. Lucie County finalized an agreement to grant the animation and visual effects company naming rights to the Mets’ 7,000-seat spring training home.

Digital Domain Holdings Chairman John Textor said the company does not plan to use the stadium name in a traditional advertising setting but rather to promote partnerships with Florida State University and Indian River State College.

“We really don’t have any need to advertise our brand for our traditional business,” Textor said. “We have a small amount of clients. They know our work, but if you’re launching a college as we are with FSU, if you’re trying to inspire kids to think about careers in the digital arts, what a partner.”

The new deal could enhance the experience for visitors to the stadium. Textor said the company plans to do visual effects in both Port St. Lucie and at Citi Field, the Mets’ stadium in New York. Original films developed in Port St. Lucie could be premiered or tested in Digital Domain Park, Textor said.

“We’re really good at putting incredible visuals on high-def screens,” Textor said.

Digital Domain Holdings received $51.8 million in state and local funding to come to Port St. Lucie with the promise of bringing 500 high-paying jobs to the community by 2014. None of the public dollars will be used for the naming rights deal, Textor said. The company plans to build a $20 million, three-story office and production facility along Interstate 95 north of the Gatlin Boulevard exit.

Mets Director of Florida Operations Paul Taglieri said he was excited about having an agreement with a local company.

“We were pretty much up against the wall here locally trying to find someone that would fill in the void,” Taglieri said. “We were just very fortunate to have John and Digital Domain — no pun intended — step up to the plate and see a tremendous value in the partnership.

Taglieri said he hopes the new agreement will help the team provide more for baseball fans in the area.

“We want to be a world-class entertainment company,” Taglieri said. “To partner with Digital Domain, it just brings it full circle to what we want to be. We’re here to entertain people.

“They’re the best in the industry, and it’s going to help us tremendously.”

Taglieri said the logo is being finalized within the next day or so. The team hopes to have the signage completely changed by the middle of the St. Lucie Mets season.

Commissioner Charles Grande said he was happy that Digital Domain Holdings is getting involved in the community.

“Since they indicated they were moving here, they have participated at a very high level and made very significant contributions to the county,” he said.

The company will pay the county $75,000 this year, $90,000 next year and $100,000 in 2012. After 2012, the amount will increase based on the consumer price index. The contract is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2018, though Digital Domain Holdings has the option to extend the deal for two more five-year terms. The Mets negotiated the contract on the county’s behalf. Taglieri said terms were similar for the Mets’ side of the deal.

The county previously had a contract with Core Communities, but Core defaulted on the deal earlier this month.

Tags: St. Lucie County, stadium

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 7:45 am and is filed under Community events, Port St. Lucie, Sports, Tradition, Treasure Coast business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.