Pullman Park will have a new name next season.

The City of Butler Parks Recreation Grounds & Facilities Authority announced at its meeting Wednesday that an agreement with Kelly Automotive has been reached to rename the baseball field after the car dealership.

The new name of the stadium will be Kelly Automotive Park.

The dealership will pay the authority $150,000 over five years for the naming rights.

The agreement accompanied the announcement that the authority proposes to sell its 40 percent ownership of the Butler BlueSox to the Nonprofit Development Corporation of Butler.

The park is the home of the BlueSox, which is a Prospect League team for college baseball players.

Ed Codi, chairman of the authority board, said both deals were needed to help support the financially struggling park.

“Bottom line, what’s driving this is our financial needs,” he said.

Art Cordwell, a member of the authority, said the park is projected to lose more than $40,000 this year.

Cordwell, who also is the executive director of the city redevelopment authority, which owns the park, said the money will help in balancing the facility’s operating expenses.

“This helps bail us out,” he said.

Signs at the park will begin to be changed in January. All work regarding the name change will be finished by the start of baseball season March 1.

Pullman Park merchandise no longer will be sold at the park next season, per the contract. Codi said the large inventory of merchandise sporting the historic name likely would be sold at fundraisers.

The authority’s desire to sell the naming rights is not new since it has been seeking a buyer for several years.

The authority hired Quest Fore, a marketing company in Pittsburgh, a year ago to develop a marketing plan. Part of that plan was to sell naming rights.

Quest Fore pitched the naming rights to the 55 largest businesses in the county. While other businesses expressed interest, Kelly Automotive was the first to make a real financial proposal.

“They showed us the money,” Codi said.

The two sides reached a preliminary agreement in September but spent several months working on details.

Cordwell said the announcement of the deal also was delayed while the authority worked on an agreement to sell its share of the BlueSox.

Pullman Park was opened in 1934 and was home to a New York Yankees farm team.

The park closed in 2005 and was renovated two years later. It reopened in 2008.

It also hosts many youth, high school and other baseball teams along with boxing matches and community events.