It’s about damn time, I say.
You know, just the other day I was lamenting the lack of corporate logos at Carter-Finley Stadium. Like any patriotic devotee to our beautiful premium-sponsored late-capitalist existsperience, I prefer to have a product or service suggested to me everywhere I look.
I never want my eyeballs to view a scene without a corporate logo in it. This is one reason that going into nature has become traumatizing to me. Did you know, for instance, that almost no trees have corporate sponsorships? It’s a terrible thing we’re doing to the environment in this country.
Anyway, you can imagine my excitement this week when it was announced that Carter-Finley Stadium may soon be getting a wildly overdue corporate champion. NC State football is finally embracing the future. What might this look like? Is it possible that the Carter and Finley names might be wiped entirely from the title? Sounds like it. It’s no offense to those families, but their brand identity is, frankly, lacking.
This is one more example in a larger college sports trend, as progress into the future continues. Perhaps you’ve heard that Pitbull is paying FIU $1.2 million annually for naming rights. Other examples: Fresno State has a 10-year, $10 million agreement with a healthcare company. North Texas has a 15-year, $21.5 million deal with a credit union. Arizona State has a 15-year, $50 million deal with a credit union. Texas State has a 15-year, $23 million deal with a credit union. Georgia Tech has a 20-year, $55 million agreement with Hyundai, which is not a credit union.
So in addition to the added visual splendor, NC State could be looking at adding two or three million bucks in added revenue per year. That’s a win-win if ever there was one.