Valuing Naming-Rights Deals for the Pac-12 Conference Football Stadiums and Basketball Arenas

By Paul Birdwell (paul@roaringforkagency.com)

A couple of news stories from college athletics in the state of Washington that appeared in the Seattle Times…

University of Washington, Alaska Airlines agree to naming-rights deal for Husky Stadium's field, Adam Jude, Seattle Times

AND

Washington State athletic department closes 2015 with $13 million budget deficit, Stephanie Loh, Seattle Times

…have gotten us here at the Roaring Fork Agency to start thinking about how we go about valuing naming-rights deals for our clients, as well for any universities that might be considering attaching a corporate name to their football stadiums and/or basketball arenas.

Below is a list of the current major football stadium and basketball arena naming-rights deals now in place and one will immediately notice that they vary widely in price and length of contract or term:

Collegiate Football Stadium Naming-Rights Deals

Collegiate Basketball Arena Naming-Rights Deals

In the story we referenced above on the current state of Washington State athletics….

Washington State athletic department closes 2015 with $13 million budget deficit, Stephanie Loh, Seattle Times

….Washington State athletic director Bill Moos is quoted at the end of the news story saying:

“We have to grow the ones we have, but we like to use our imagination and be innovation, and we’ve done that over the last six years here. We’re shifting it to another gear,” Moos said.

That could include selling naming rights to Beasley Coliseum or Martin Stadium for the right price.

“I wouldn’t say no, but the money would have to be right,” Moos said. “Because I have a conflict in the traditional part of me and the aggressive part of me.”

That quote from Bill Moos got us wondering just what the naming-rights for the football stadium and basketball arena at Washington State would be worth, which led us here at the Roaring Fork Agency to putting together a group of about ten variables such as facility type, local population, average attendance, number of games and events, tradition of program, potential media mentions, media impressions, etc., that would lead us to a correct valuation of the naming-rights for any college football stadium or basketball arena in America.  

Below are the naming-rights valuations we came up for the football stadiums and basketball arenas for schools in the Pac-12 Conference that do not currently have naming-rights deals in place.  We believe here at the Roaring Fork Agency that the ideal naming-rights contract for a college or university is a 10-year deal which provides needed stability and income for a decade, but does not overextend the school into alignment with one company at one market price for over a decade.

Pac 12 Conference Potential and Current Naming-Rights Deals (Current naming-rights deals in bold):

Using the above information and estimated amounts that could be garnered by Pac-12 Conference Schools with football stadiums and basketball arenas that do not have naming-rights deals in place right now, the Pac-12 Conference schools combined are missing out on something around….

$31.775 Million Dollars Per Year

….in potential naming-rights revenue!

Over $30 million dollars will pay a lot of bills in college athletic departments, especially when there are athletic departments like Washington State that are running annual deficits of over $13 million dollars.

The Roaring Fork Agency is now working with a few universities on naming rights deals, and after some exhaustive research that led to our agency creating a solid framework on how to value college naming-rights deals in the today’s marketplace, we stand ready to work with any college or university in America to help them both value and land a naming-rights deal that is a win-win for both the university and the sponsoring company.

Washington Athletics - www.gohuskies.com

Washington State Athletics - www.wsucougars.com

Pac-12 Conference - www.pac-12.com

If you have any questions about event sponsorship or venue naming rights contact the Roaring Fork Agency at:

info@roaringforkagency.com

San Francisco, California - 415 730 - 4854

Lake Tahoe, Nevada – 775 374 - 6400

Bend, Oregon – 541 237 – 8080

Honolulu, Hawaii - 808 638 - 2600

www.roaringforkagency.com

Twitter - @RoaringForkAgcy