Sold: Naming Rights for Houston’s New Football Stadium

Rendering of TDECU Stadium at University of Houston (photo credit: University of Houston)

When University of Houston plays its first football game in its new on-campus stadium on August 29th against UTSA on national television, the announcers will refer to it as TDECU Stadium thanks to a new naming rights deal. A 10-year, $15-million gift from TDECU gets the local credit union naming rights and a suite on the 50-yard line.

Here at BusinessofCollegeSports.com we’ve been tracking naming rights deals for intercollegiate athletics facilities. Houston’s new deal brings the average annual value of naming rights for football stadiums to $879,594 (based on available data). Read more about our naming rights study here. We also maintain a full database of known naming rights deals.

Houston’s deal will be a nice infusion of cash for an athletic department that reported $42 million in total revenue last year. Mack Rhoades, Houston’s Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, had this to say about the partnership:

“From the beginning of this process, we have been very strategic with how we chose our naming rights gift. We wanted an entity that aligned with our core values, cared about its workforce and its clients, invested in the community and the University. We’ve found that and more with TDECU.”

TDECU’s President and CEO Stephanie Sherrodd was equally as enthusiastic about the partnership:

“We are thrilled and honored to have this opportunity to partner with the University of Houston.  We are proud to have the TDECU name on the new stadium as a visible sign of our commitment to the University and the Houston community, TDECU’s core values are shared by the University of Houston in improving the lives of those around us in order to build for the future.”

Houston has already sold out all suites (26), loge boxes, suite decks, party patios and club seating in the new football stadium as it looks forward to its second season in the American Athletic Conference.