Medical supply company Exactech on Thursday announced it had signed a 10-year, $5.9M deal to acquire the naming rights to the Univ. of Florida's basketball arena formerly known as the O'Connell Center. The new deal for the Exactech Arena gives the Gainesville-based company a presence at the venue, use of UF facilities and TV coverage and commercial spots on FS Sun and FS Florida during arena events. Exactech plans to channel the visibility toward health-related education. Exactech holds an option to extend the deal for an additional five years (Exactech). This marks the first corporate naming-rights deal for the school and the first sports marketing play for Exactech. The five-year option is for another $3.5M. UF's rights holder, Fox Sports, worked with the school to close the deal. Fox Sports College Properties VP/Business Development Nick Cartan led the talks for Fox along with UF Exec Associate AD/External Affairs Mike Hill. “Naming rights can be tricky. Ultimately, the value in the deal is not so much the name on the building, but what we do together and create together around this name,” Cartan said. Fox wound up representing UF in the deal after the university’s development office produced the lead about a year ago. Fox owns the school’s rights, but outsources the multimedia rights to IMG College. Since naming rights are not included in the multimedia rights, Fox was able to take the lead in talks with Exactech. While Fox was deeply involved in the deal, the school will keep all of the rights fees. That money will go toward the $64.5M renovation of the building known as the O-Dome (Michael Smith, Staff Writer). In Jacksonville, Garry Smits notes Cindy O'Connell, widow of the late UF president and arena namesake Stephen O'Connell, "gave her blessing for the naming rights deal" (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 6/10).
THE OLD BALL COACH: UF's BOD voted Thursday to "change the name of the football stadium to Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in honor of Spurrier’s legendary playing and coaching success at UF." Spurrier was "already scheduled to be honored at UF’s home-opener against UMass on Sept. 3 as part of the 50th anniversary of his Heisman Trophy." He also "will be honored in a ceremony renaming the stadium" (GAINESVILLE SUN, 6/10).
