Stadium Names, from The Indicator
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Hey, it's actually today we're bringing you an episode of a terrific podcast called the indicator from planet money. It's from npr. Each episode takes a look at one facet of the business or economic world.

And IT does IT in under ten minutes. Sometimes they give the story behind the news, like how much impact the president really has on the economy. They cover trends too, like which jobs are growing fastest storm, how weather prediction is getting privatized. And like us, they try to have fun in this episode of the indicator hosts Adrian mop and whalin wong explore the economics of college sports stadium naming .

rights we will be enjoy IT.

N P R.

This is the indicator from planet money .

on major mah, and I will in wong. If you drive by any major sports venue, professional or college IT in almost any city, there is a good chance you'll see the name of a bank or a tech company, some other brand that has paid millions of dollars for the right to name that stadium or arena .

after themselves. And some of these sponsored stadium names can be more than a little clunky. For example, the bottom ravens play in M, M, T.

Bank stadium are. So look this up in pitzer g, the penguins play at P, P, G paints arena. I mean.

well, in chicago, we have guaranteed rate field. That's all the way suspect. And that's bad. And people in chicago had a lot of feelings about .

IT when I was really in. But you know, in in the Normally bland corporate sounding universe of vene mashups, here's a venue sponsor that stands out. If you are a practitioner of the crunk or clubs arts, you might recognize this song as you don't stop the party from the rapper and singer pitt bull. Recently, people agreed to pay six billion dollars to Flora international university for the naming rights to its football stadium. And so this weekend its football team will play the first game in the newly dumped pitbull stadium, which appears to be the only one of its kind in amErica named after a musician .

today on the show. Why F I U this unusual name deal and what IT tells us about the fast changing economics of college sports.

Scott car is director of athletics at florida international university, which basically means he's in charge of overseeing the sports teams. But beyond that, Scott sort of sees his job is promoting the university itself.

What we always say in our athletics department, whether they, if you or another one where the front ports to the university, we are one of, if not the, strongest marketing ARM foreign institution right now.

Universities can try and build their reputations through their academic programs. They can buy ads and commercials. But Scott says nothing quite. Build the schools brand like sports and one sport in particular.

If you really want people to know who you are, be great in football.

Yeah um the the only problem with that is that F I U is how do I put this not great at football?

No really it's .

extremely not greater football. Yeah um history ally, they have ve lost the way more games than they have won.

And you to be fair to F I U, its football program hasn't been around for that long. For comparison.

I've worked alban university and I think they're probably around one hundred and thirty hundred and forty years of football, something like that right by now. We've only been playing in football for twenty two years, which means that we haven't had some of the success that some of these other .

schools have had. So how does the school football team get Better than? Well, of course, IT has to attract Better players.

And how does to do that? Well, the simple answer is money. A school with more money can hire Better coaches and give out more scholarships. IT can build a bigger stadium and nice training facilities. But that money has gotta come from somewhere in finding IT has become more complicated in recent months as schools deal with some radical shifts in the economics of college sports.

For one thing, a couple of years ago, the main governing body of college sports, the N, C, W, A, got rid of an old rule that prohibited athletes from earning money of their name, image and lightness. As a result of this change, donors and corporate sponsors, who, in the past we would have given money directly to a school, can now give money directly to athletes. So schools that are losing that revenue have to make IT up elsewhere.

Compounding this issue is a second major shift expected to up next year. In a proposed settled in a lawsuit involving the N. C, W. A, schools may soon be able to start sharing revenue from things like ticket sales and sponsorships with student athletes. And they may have to, if they want to attract the best.

we do want to be able to participate at whatever level that we can. So you think about that and you say, okay, wall, you know, we need to increase the revenues that we have because that's a new expense, if you will, right? That's a new expense that wasn't there five years ago.

The hunt for new revenue, LED Scott, his colleagues, to do what more and more schools have done in recent years, which is least out the naming right to their sports facilities. And if I use case, this is a twenty thousand seat football stadium, and that is when they approach a man named armando Christian patas, A K, A mr. Worldwide, A K, A pit ball and pit agreed to pay five, six million dollars to have his name on the stadium for five years.

Here is talking .

about sp, you know.

coming from mm. You get that chip on your shoulder. You're just the on the dog of all on the dogs.

And you're constantly trying to figure out ways on how to do things that nobody thought of, or they thought that I was unbelievable and impossible. So to be able to post something like this song, I wanted say, thank you for you. Yes.

you think i'm do that right? Is that you? No.

it's me. I was in the booth with that. Well.

I was just doing an impression of people.

Yeah, can tell you to apart. Yes, now pit people is obviously a celebrity and a successful musician. And not saying you're not at you, but why didn't F I U do a name deal with, lets say, a bag or a tech company or a fortune five hundred company with super deep pockets? Scott says he was about generating buzz.

We made history because there's not another college stadium that's named after a musician. If we had named our stadium after that fortune five hundred company, you and I had never met each other, and we're probably not doing this interview.

Scot says he got a company to estimate in the amount immediate exposure the school has gotten in the two weeks after they announced this pitbull stadium deal. And he says he was estimated to be worth around eighty six million dollars. So I guess we're kind of a part of this too.

Yes, I think paid set and hook that that is us.

Well, you know, it's like this people angle is knit for us. I going to resist. IT really works.

We got soccer.

So forming this partnership with football appears to be already paying off for F, I, U, and there's more to IT. As part of the deal, pitbull will help the school with fund raising, promote the school in social media, and even write a special pital stadium song.

I think this is sound like a pretty good deal for F, I, U. So far. But a, even so, you know, there are so many entertainers in miami that we just had to ask, got what other celebrities did you consider?

Sure I am going to plead the fifth on that right? On who was on our list, right? But our mondo pitbull was was at the top of how .

he says our mindo people. That's so good, we should say less. We give the impression this is a filthy pic endeavor for football. That IT is also a multi dimensional money making opportunity for him on top of having his name on the stadium, he has the right to sell on field advertising space. People also owns a vodka brand, which will be sold in the stadium. And maybe the biggest deal of all, ten days a year, he gets to use the stadium rent free so he could, through a concert he could least IT out. He could like, through a children's birthday party and .

offer pony rives. That would be an epic, epic kids birthday party.

Can you imagine you could have like a farest wheel in there. You could have sd swaller. D, I think i'm just describing a circus. I am describing a circus.

This sounds like you're pitching .

pittman all right now. Yeah, can you get sky give me his .

number after this? You know, looking forward, who knows if more celebrities will follow in pit ples footsteps or foot or pop is what does seem likely is more schools will be looking for naming right deal. Like if I you did for this story, we spoke to a sports marketing firm called elevate, and they estimate about twenty five percent of universities have a corporate sponsor on their stadium. And they think it's likely to increase thanks to the changing economics of college sports and the fact these venues are just prime advertising real estate .

even when a team is only so so well.

you haven't lived until you have cheered for a losing football team. And i'm saying.

I went to north western, the doormat of the big ten.

This episode was produced by Angel CUDA as and engineer by Patrick murray. I was speak checked by sir, what s caking can and as the show and the indicators production of N, P, R.

Thanks again to N, P, R for sharing an episode of the indicator from planet money. You can find more episodes of the indicator ever. You get your podcasts five days a week, always less than ten minutes, will be back in a few days with the new episode of the economics of everyday things.

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