July 5th, 2011
More Naming-Rights Deals Coming to US Colleges?
Brand Channel
High Point Solutions has reportedly paid $6.5 million to stick its name on the stadium at Rutgers University in New Jersey. In a financially struggling world, it seems we are primed to hear of more such deals in coming years.
ESPN.com points out that it is mostly tradition that keeps universities from selling the naming rights to football stadiums, commenting that “It just feels different to fans when a corporate name is attached to a stadium, as opposed to the name of a benefactor.”
“We did look around to see what other institutions were doing,” Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti told ESPN.
He added, “I was surprised through the process to see that there weren’t that many active in the space. It’s tradition. In certain places based on tradition and 50 years of sellouts and all those things, schools don’t have to put their properties up for sale. I’m not saying we had to. We went through this process to find the right partner that stood for the same things we did. We weren’t going to do anything to get a naming rights deal. We were looking for something specific.”
ESPN points out that only 22 of 120 Football Bowl Subdivision schools made cash in 2009-10. “Yet only 11 schools have entered into their own naming rights deals for stadiums on their home campuses,” the site notes.
“I think maybe some perceive it as selling out to big business and corporate dollars,” said Kirk Wakefield, a marketing professor at Baylor, to ESPN. “To me, that’s misguided because it should be a partnership and there’s nothing wrong with helping friends out if they are helping you. Some will be sticks in the mud and not want to do it, but I don’t think it’s out of good logical business sense. It’s more the purity of the game sort of idea.”
Wakefield worked with AT&T, which has its name on Texas Tech’s stadium, to assess naming rights and found that the corporation would make more than its money back due “to new customers it signed up because of corporate naming rights deals,” ESPN reports.
Read more: http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2011/07/04/More-Naming-Rights-Deals-Coming-to-US-Colleges.aspx