CLEVELAND -- It's only 80 days until fans hear the sounds of "Play Ball" in Cleveland. But the Cleveland Indians already have something new to see - Progressive Field.

Click here to share your thoughts on the name change, and to suggest a new nickname for the ballpark

The Cleveland-based Progressive auto insurance company will pay an "average" of $3.6 million annually for the next 16 years.

Cleveland Indians President Paul Dolan and Progressive's President and CEO Glenn Renwick made that announcement at a press conference Friday morning.

Renwick said the annual payout reflects not just the naming rights to the former Jacobs Field but having Progressive as the exclusive auto insurer for the Indians.

Renwick said the annual money being paid to the Indians is "a reallocation of some of our marketing money...about 1 percent of our annual marketing expenses."

Dolan said the payments would "start out at a lower number than $3.6 million, then grow, as $3.6 million is just an average figure."

Dolan said the annual payment would be put in the club's general fund and used for three things, "to put a quality team on the field;" maintaining the field itself, and into player development."

Progressive, the nation's third largest auto insurance group, is a $14 billion-dollar a year company established in 1937. It is located in the Cleveland suburb of Mayfield Village.

Dolan said the Indians talked to "a number of local companies and companies outside of Cleveland but that Progressive had been under consideration early on.

Since the park opened in 1994, it has been the host of several playoff games, two World Series and an All-Star game. It also saw a stretch of 455 straight sellouts.