Company Reneges On VCU Sponsorship After Filing For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Richmond-based Health Diagnostic Laboratory’s "high-profile sponsorship" of VCU is over after the school and company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month, confirmed that HDL "can no longer make its annual payments" on what was a 10-year, $4M deal, according to Jacob Geiger of the RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH. The deal "called on HDL to pay $400,000 by June 30 each year" through '22, with the most recent missed payment coming last month. In the end, VCU "received only $800,000." As part of HDL’s deal, all of VCU’s athletics facilities "were decked in signs proclaiming them part of the 'HDL Inc. Athletic Village.'" The top part of the new scoreboard at the Siegel Center "also is decked with HDL words in large letters on two sides." VCU interim Dir of Public Affairs Michael Porter said that those signs "would be removed and replaced," but added that VCU "did not know when it would change the signs or how much it would cost to do so" (RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, 6/9).