March 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Ameriquest name is disappearing from Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Ameriquest Mortgage Co., once the biggest provider of subprime loans, agreed to return the naming rights to the team and the stadium will be renamed Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, the Rangers said today in an e-mailed statement. The team said it wanted to reclaim the rights as part of a new branding campaign.

The parent company of Ameriquest, ACC Capital Holdings, is among several mortgage companies that are closing offices and firing workers in the face of higher delinquency rates and foreclosures.

Ameriquest bought the naming rights to the 49,115-seat stadium in 2004 in a 30-year, $75 million agreement. Ameriquest is also listed as the official mortgage company of major league baseball. The stadium was completed in 1994, when the current U.S. president, George W. Bush, was part owner of the Rangers.

``I have asked for an immediate overhaul of the signage and other products at the ballpark,'' Tom Hicks, the current owner of the Rangers, said in the statement.

ACC said last week it fired an unspecified number of workers to save money. It also received a cash infusion last month from Citigroup Inc. as increasing numbers of borrowers default on their mortgages.

The Rangers first proposed taking back the naming rights last year, the statement said, before the onset of the current crisis in subprime mortgages.

Development Coming

The Rangers want to have their own name on the ballpark because of the development that is coming to the area around the field, including a mixed-use development called Glorypark and a new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys football team, Jeff Cogen, the president of the Rangers said in a phone interview.

He said the Rangers want visitors to the area to ``see our logo and not a corporate logo.'' The majority of the signs at the stadium will be changed by opening day, April 6, Cogen said.

Cogen said he first went to California to talk with Ameriquest a year ago and the talks over reclaiming the rights ``started picking up steam over the last couple months.''

The terms of the agreement are confidential, Cogen said.

``Our relationship with the Texas Rangers has been extremely positive over the last few years,'' Adam Bass, vice chairman of Ameriquest, said in the statement.

Ameriquest and another business owned by ACC Capital, Argent Mortgage Co. LLC, which provides home loans to consumers, may cut more of their sports marketing budgets because of financial woes, experts said last week and today.

Nascar Sponsorship

Ameriquest is the primary sponsor of the No. 16 Ford Fusion racecar driven by Greg Biffle in Nascar's elite Nextel Cup series. That can cost up to about $20 million a year, said William Chipps, the senior editor of the IEG Sponsorship Report in Chicago.

Roush Fenway Racing, the owner of Biffle's car and one of the largest teams in Nascar, said nothing has changed because of Ameriquest's difficulties.

``We have a contract and there's no reason to believe it won't be honored,'' Torrey Galida, senior vice president of marketing at Roush Fenway in Concord, North Carolina, said today in an interview. ``There's been a lot of news on subprime lenders. They're a great company. We know that that industry is changing very quickly, but like I said, we don't have any reason to believe our partnership won't continue.''

Galida declined to comment on how many years the sponsorship is scheduled to last or on its financial terms.

Argent and Indy cars

Argent is an associate sponsor of Indy cars driven by Indianapolis, Indiana-based Andretti Green Racing, including one by Danica Patrick.

Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola Inc. is the main sponsor of Patrick's car, who was the IRL Rookie of the Year in 2005. An associate sponsor receives less visibility with a racing team than a primary sponsor.

Ameriquest quickly entered the big leagues of sports marketing in 2004 when it bought the Rangers stadium naming rights, just as growth in the subprime lending business took off, Chipps said.

``They went to the biggest properties,'' Chipps said.

About 25 percent of the dollar value of the U.S. mortgage market in 2005 and 2006 was comprised of subprime loans, compared with a 10 percent rate through 2001 to 2003, according to CreditSights Inc., an independent bond research firm based in New York.

Messages left with officials at Andretti Green Racing, Major League Baseball and Chris Orlando, a spokesman for Ameriquest, asking for comment, were not immediately returned.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Louis in Chicago at blouis1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 19, 2007 18:47 EDT