No more Minute Maid Park: Houston Astros’ stadium renamed

HOUSTON — The Houston Astros announced that Minute Maid Park would be renamed “Daikin Park” at an event Monday morning.

The name change was coming January 2025.

The ballpark currently has a seating capacity of more than 41,000.

It was named The Ballpark at Union Station during its planning phase before taking on the name of Enron Field when it opened in 2000.

For a few months in 2002, when the team moved on from Enron Field, the stadium went by Astros Field. In the summer of the same year, Coca-Cola took on naming rights and turned the stadium into Minute Maid Park, which it has been ever since.

Daikin is an air conditioning company that’s based in Japan. According to the Daikin.com website, they’re “the only manufacturer involved in all facets of manufacture, sale, and servicing of wide range air conditioning products, systems and also refrigerants.”

The website also said it was founded in 1924 and has net sales of more than $29 billion and its products are sold in more than 170 countries.

You can learn more about Daikin at Daikin.com.

According to Astros.com, the facility was initially called Enron Field on April 7, 1999, then renamed Astros Field on Feb. 27, 2002, after the collapse of Enron.

On June 5, 2002, the facility was renamed Minute Maid Park through a naming rights agreement with the Minute Maid company, which is operated by the Coca Cola Company.

The first concept for the ballpark came out in 1996 with a design that was inspired by Houston’s industrial and railroad history. The downtown park came to be thanks to a $250 million public funding project approved by voters in November of 1996 and a $35 million interest-free loan from the Houston Sports Facility Partnership to be paid back after 10 years of operation.

Some of the unique features of the park are a replica 19th-century locomotive on the west roof, a symbol of Union Station’s history. As Astros fans know, the train moves along the track when a Houston player goes deep. It’s currently driven on the tracks by ‘Bobby Dynamite.’ The park also features a retractable roof. According to the Astros website, the facility has the largest open area of any retractable roof stadium. It opens and closes in 12 to 20 minutes. Also making the park unique are the Crawford Boxes in left field.