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Georgia State Stadium secures naming-rights deal

Georgia State Stadium, the venue formerly known as Turner Field, will be rebranded through an agreement with the Atlanta Postal Credit Union.

The 24,000-seat stadium, which served as the home of the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball team until 2016, will now be known as Center Parc Credit Union Stadium.

Since the Braves left the stadium and relocated to Truist Park, the stadium has primarily served as the home of Georgia State University’s American football team.

According to the Newnan Times-Herald newspaper, Atlanta Postal Credit Union will pay a fee of nearly $21.6m (£16.5m/€18.4m) in 15 annual instalments for the naming rights.

The deal will grant the company rights to change the name of the stadium no more than twice over the duration of the agreement, which is set to be approved by the University System of Georgia’s full board of regents’ real estate and facilities committee this week.

Georgia State Stadium was built for Atlanta’s staging of the 1996 summer Olympic Games, where it hosted track and field events, before serving as the home of the Braves for almost 20 years.

Elsewhere in college sports, the home of the University of Central Florida’s American football team will now officially be known as the Bounce House in homage to its long-held nickname.

The UCF Football Twitter page confirmed the rebrand last week. The change in name comes following the expiration of a sponsorship deal with Charter Communications’ Spectrum brand, through which the venue was known as Spectrum Stadium.

The UCF Athletics Association has previously said that a naming-rights deal was not expected to be signed for the 2020 season and the venue will adopt a moniker that has been popular among Knights fans.

The 44,000-capacity stadium has been unofficially referred to as the Bounce House as it would physically shake when fans jumped up and down in unison. The moniker will effectively serve as a placeholder until a new sponsor is found.

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