FORT COLLINS, Colo.—The $2.2-billion Public Service Credit Union of Colorado has agreed to a sponsorship deal with Colorado State University and Learfield Sports for $37.7 million over 15 years that includes putting the CU’s new name on the school’s football stadium.
The financial terms make it one of the most lucrative sponsorship deals in college athletics, CSU President and Chancellor Tony Frank said, according to the Coloradoan.
The actual name of the stadium has not yet been determined, Athletic Director Joe Parker said, since Public Service Credit Union is undergoing a rebranding process that it expects to complete by the first week of June.
CSU opened the new stadium, with 36,500 seats and total capacity of 41,000, last fall. An anonymous donor paid $20 million to put the name of former coach Sonny Lubick on the stadium’s playing field, but naming rights to the stadium itself were not sold for the $220-million facility’s first season, the Coloradoan reported.
Parker said the university could be choosy in selecting a naming-rights partner, since the $20 million that was given to put Lubick’s name on the field was equal to the amount of money the school had hoped to make selling both stadium and field naming rights, the newspaper said.
Money from the naming rights will be placed into the reserve fund CSU has established to help cover any shortfalls that might occur between net revenue produced by the stadium's operations and annual bond payments on the debt incurred to build the facility, the Coloradoan said.