By now you’re probably aware of the trend of multi-million dollar high school football stadiums cropping up in the state of Texas. But another adjacent trend is helping the state’s school districts offset the costs of building such facilities — and bring in additional funds for students.
The Dallas Morning News reports that districts throughout the state have secured naming rights agreements for their football stadium, the field within the stadium or an athletic complex.
Most recently, Prosper ISD inked a 10-year naming rights deal with pediatric health care system Children’s Health that will net the district $250,000 a year over the course of the agreement, $2.5 million in total.
“I think the biggest thing is what our Senate and our Legislature did with [school] funding,” Prosper ISD athletic director Valerie Little told The Dallas Morning News. “You get to a point where school districts have to be creative. When your local population is having to take on 75 percent of the funding for your school district, do we put that burden on our people and hike up our tax rate? Or do we find different ways to go out and hopefully supplement that.”
Districts in states such as Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania have reportedly entered naming rights deals for their stadiums — but the deals are richer in the high school football hotbed of Texas.
Other multi-million dollar naming rights deals in the state include Lubbock ISD’s $3 million agreement with PlainsCapital Bank and Katy ISD’s $2.5 million agreement with Academy Sports + Outdoors. Both agreements cover a 10-year period.
“Funding is always being cut, and there is always talk of cutting programs,” Jeff Bertoni, president of sales for Chicago-based Sportscorp Ltd. told The Dallas Morning News. “This is certainly a way to allow the districts to monetize their programs and save their programs through an alternative stream of revenue.”
