Welcome to Sun Life Stadium

After hoisting the name Land Shark Stadium for the entirety of the 2009-10 NFL regular season, the Miami Dolphins have reached a deal with Sun Life Financial, Inc. to rename the stadium Sun Life Stadium. And on a beautiful cloudless sunny day, a press conference was held at the newly dubbed Sun Life Stadium capped off by a concert by KC and the Sunshine Band.

This is now the eighth name for the stadium that opened in 1987 as Joe Robbie Stadium. But as important as it was to get this deal done before the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl XLIV, Dolphins CEO Mike Dee pointed to the entire scope of the deal as it relates to the current economy as the real news:

"This is the first naming rights deal done of significance in the post-recession period and we weren't out in the marketplace very long. A bigger priority was finding the right partner, so if that hadn't happened we were prepared to move forward under an old name. I think from our point of view it wasn't when, it was who,"

Among the invited guests were students from Plantation-American Heritage School, Super Bowl Host Committee volunteers, marketing partners, corporate sponsors, season ticket holders and local dignitaries like the Mayor Shirley Gibson of Miami Gardens, Miami-Dade Commissioner Barbara Jordan, Jeannette Sparano, wife of Head Coach Tony Sparano, and Rachel Ireland, wife of General Manager Jeff Ireland.

For pictures from the press conference, check out our photo gallery: click here.