The sign outside Dunkin’ Park facing Trumbull Street was replaced Tuesday, as the stadium readies for opening day on April 6.
The downtown Hartford stadium where the Yard Goats play their home games, which opened in 2017 as part of a Downtown North revitalization project, has been renamed Dunkin’ Park.
The 6,121-seat stadium is being rebranded to match the name of its namesake sponsor, Dunkin’. In 2019, the breakfast chain restaurant removed the word “Donuts” from its title, but until this year, the stadium retained its original name.
Multiple cranes were parked at the intersection of Main and Trumbull street Tuesday afternoon as each letter of the new sign was put into place.
The rebranding also includes a new 15-foot tall iced coffee cup, which sits atop the video scoreboard in left field.
Jeff Dooley, a spokesman for the team, said it is believed to be the largest iced coffee cup in the world. If filled, it would serve 14,000 large cups of iced coffee from Dunkin’, he said. The old sign was a hot coffee cup, which emitted steam when Yard Goats hit a homerun.
The iced coffee cup will also have a special feature, which will be unveiled during the opening game, he said.
The stadium was named “Best Double-A Ballpark in America” by Ballpark Digest in 2022 for the fourth time in six years. Dunkin’ has a long-term sponsorship agreement with the Yard Goats and the city of Hartford, which owns the stadium.
The Yard Goats are the minor league affiliate of the Colorado Rockies Major League Baseball team.
The parent company of Dunkin’ paid at least $250,000 a year for the ballpark’s naming rights, the Hartford Courant reported in 2018.
