Colorado State and Public Service Credit Union of Colorado have "agreed to a sponsorship deal" for $37.7M over 15 years that includes putting PSCU's name on the school's football stadium, according to a front-page piece by Kelly Lyell of the Ft. Collins COLORADOAN. CSU AD Joe Parker said that the actual name of the stadium "has not yet been determined," since PSCU is "undergoing a rebranding process that it expects to complete by the first week of June." CSU opened the venue last fall, which included am anonymous donor paying $20M to "put the name of former coach Sonny Lubick on the stadium's playing field." Learfield's new Campus-Plus division will "receive a hefty commission for bringing the parties together." Money from the deal 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." Those payments "will be about" $12.2M from '20-55. CSU will be the sixth Mountain West school with a football venue entitlement deal (Ft. Collins COLORADOAN, 4/20).
FACTS & FIGURES: In Denver, Matt Stephens reports this is the "first corporate sponsor of an athletic venue in CSU history." There also is an annual "escalator clause" to "compensate for inflation, in addition to a $500,000 signing bonus." The stadium's party deck was already "sponsored by New Belgium Brewing Company" for $4.3M, and the field-level club is sponsored by Orthopaedic & Spine Center of the Rockies (DENVER POST, 4/20). Also in Denver, Jonathan Rose reported the deal is a "much-needed cash infusion" for CSU football, which reportedly generated $5.9M in unsubsidized revenue in FY '16, while spending $14.2M, for a net loss of $8.3M (BIZJOURNALS.com, 4/19).
