Colorado State University has claimed one of the largest collegiate athletic venue naming agreements in history through a 15-year deal with financial services company Public Service Credit Union.
The $37.7m (£26.8m/€30.6m) deal will help launch a re-branding initiative by the new stadium sponsor and official credit union partner. The agreement, which when added to the $20m given through an anonymous donation in March 2016 to name Sonny Lubick Field, brings the total naming rights revenues at Colorado State to $57m for the stadium.
CSU said this is comparable to the recently announced $69m United Airlines Memorial Coliseum at University of Southern California and the $41m Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium at the University of Washington.
The agreement with PSCU includes annual escalator clauses for inflation, as well as a signing bonus, in recognition of the visibility and success of the new on-campus stadium, which begins its second American football season in August.
PSCU agreed to become the title sponsor of the new stadium as part of an overall re-branding initiative and planned public rollout of a new name, which will be unveiled in the coming weeks. The Learfield agency’s Rams Sports Properties and their Campus+ business brokered the agreement as part of its ongoing support for CSU athletics.
The playing field will continue to be named for the Rams’ legendary head coach Sonny Lubick, who also serves as vice-president of community outreach for PSCU.
CSU president Tony Frank said: “Our stadium will carry the name of a Colorado-based business that shares our commitment to creating opportunity and opening doors for people at all income levels. Our mission and our values as a university align so well with those of PSCU, and the investment by the credit union and its members in our campus and programs will bring great visibility to how much they accomplish as a visionary community partner.”
Public Service Credit Union president and chief executive, Todd Marksberry, added: “This partnership has been 10 years in the making and ensures that PSCU will help the more than 33,000 CSU students, nearly 1,500 academic faculty, over 4,300 administrative staff along with the nearly 57,000 CSU alumni in the Denver metro area afford life and simultaneously create positive change for our entire membership. We couldn’t think of a better way to create even deeper and broader impact in Colorado.
“As an industry, credit unions have struggled with awareness. We frequently think of ourselves as the best kept secret in North America; but, what makes this agreement even more compelling is that it goes beyond awareness and the tremendous honour of naming the stadium. As official credit union, we will be growing relationships with students, faculty, staff and alumni; helping them create brighter financial futures.”
The $225m on-campus stadium at Colorado State University opened in the summer of 2017 and brought Rams football games back to campus for the first time in 50 years.
The Rams set an all-time attendance record for its first season in the new stadium with a total of 192,369 fans and a per-game average of 32,062, representing a 16-per cent attendance increase from 2016. Season ticket sales also reached an all-time high of 15,477, a 40-per cent increase from the 2016 total of 11,054.
Image: JanBaby
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