united airlines intends to reach a deal to acquire the naming-rights from the University of Southern California (USC) to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, according to sources with knowledge of the agreement, cited by SportsBusiness Daily last week. The deal is believed to be valued at $70 million over 15 years, which would possibly become the richest agreement in history.
While a contract has not yet been inked, United's Naming Rights deal is set to surpass the deal between Alaska Airlines and the University of Washington that is worth $41 million over 10 years for Husky Stadium's field in 2015.
United spokesman Jonathan Guerin said in a statement that the company is always assessing marketing possibilities.
USC, the Pac-10 school who collaborated with Fox Sports as a partner, made an effort to sell naming-rights to a buyer for its 93,000-seat stadium since 2015. Oscar Munoz, the United Airline CEO who graduated from Business school at USC, is one of the main reasons why the company pursued a deal with the university.
Stadium renovation project expected to complete prior to 2019
As a part of the agreement, USC is set to generate revenue that would assist the university to fund renovations, which is scheduled to begin in 2018. The project has raised $225 million in cash from the university for $270 million renovations.
Officials anticipate renovations to be completed before the 2019 football season.
Though United's brand name on the stadium has not yet been determined, school and Fox officials mentioned in the past that the historic stadium brand name, "Memorial Coliseum," is expected to be retained. A contract for a 98-year lease of the stadium indicated that the university is required to pay the state five percent of the proceeds from the naming-rights sale to the stadium.
Other naming-rights deals in college athletics
Four years ago, the University of California Berkeley reached an agreement with the San Francisco-based video game company Kabam to buy naming-rights for Memorial Stadium Field. The deal is worth $18 million over 15 years, which, according to SBJ, became the largest naming-rights package in the college ranks at the time.
Early in May 2016, the University of Kentucky recently agreed to a naming-rights deal with supermarket chain Kroger that would pay the school $1.85 million over 12 years for its new stadium, Kroger Field, originally known as Commonwealth Stadium. Kroger has been named as one of the largest supermarket chains in the world.
United Airlines sports sponsorships
United Airlines and the Golden State Warriors have entered multiyear sponsorship agreement last year to score the Untied as an official airline of the Golden State Warriors. As its partnership between the company and Warriors began in the 2016-17 season at Oracle Arena, the sponsorship deal will remain when the team moves to Chase Center in 2019.
Additionally, United Airlines, the world's third-largest airline, has signed six-year extension to sponsorship of PGA TOUR last year, naming the United as a official partner of the PGA Tour. The deal the company signed with PGA Tour will run until 2021.
