The University of Houston conducted assessments recently to determine the value of corporate-sponsorship logos at its athletic facilities, including the homes of the football and men’s basketball programs, athletic director Eddie Nuñez told the Houston Chronicle. The school is also exploring corporate patches on team uniforms.
“All those are new inventory that right now we can go out there and sell,” Nuñez said. “When you start thinking about new revenue, there’s the possibility for us to generate some significant money.”
Schools across the country are scrambling to find new revenue streams to address rising costs, including the impending revenue share plan with athletes that is expected to begin this summer.
A rule change that went into effect beginning with the 2024 season allows schools to put corporate logos on their football fields for regular-season home games. Schools are permitted to put the logos on three spots — at the 50-yard line and two smaller logos elsewhere.
Nuñez said potential revenue would be “significant” for the cash-strapped UH athletic department, which has the smallest budget among Power Four schools.
On-field logo deals — which factor viewership, attendance and TV broadcast exposure for sponsors — could be worth anywhere between $700,000 to close to $4 million for top-level schools in the Power Four conferences, according to estimates by Navigate, a firm that specializes in college and professional sports right valuations. Among the top 50 programs, the average valuation for a jersey patch was $2.2 million for football and $590,000 for men’s basketball. The UH men’s basketball would likely be in position to receive between $1-$3 million based on its status as one of the nation’s premier programs.
“When you start thinking about new revenue there’s the possibility for us to generate some significant money,” Nuñez said. “Even if it’s half a million, that’s half a million dollars we never had.”
Nuñez said UH is taking a proactive approach to seeking potential corporate partners for jerseys, field-level and just about anywhere else.
“We’re moving,” Nuñez said. “I don’t want to wait. I want to get in front of the right people, the right companies that want to be in our facilities.”
A big step in the process was finalized late Tuesday when UH announced it had renewed with Learfield on a multi-year exclusive multimedia and sponsorship rights partnership.
“We have to have a partner that sees the vision,” Nuñez said. “We have to have a partner in Learfield that sees that it’s not just about doing what we’ve done in the past. We need to look at things totally different. We need to look at the whole landscape of our facilities and everything and say, what do we do differently?”
The earliest for any logos to appear would be 2025 for football and 2025-26 basketball season. The NCAA is still discussing whether to allow corporate patches on uniforms.
UH is going through the process of identifying local companies that have interest in a multi-year deal to become corporate sponsors.
“With the market we have, with the unbelievable companies that we have here that are Fortune 500 — some have done business with us and some haven’t — we can probably make some pretty good waves,” Nuñez said.
In addition to the field, court and jerseys, Nuñez has compiled a list of “blank spaces” at the school’s facilities that could be used for naming-rights purposes. The school must strike a balance, he said, between maintaining tradition and a “NASCAR approach,” which is known for splashing multiple sponsorships on its race cars.
“We’re not going to be NASCAR, but we’re going to be in that middle ground and try and maximize the areas we can maximize,” Nuñez added. “I’m all about finding ways to show the tradition, to show history, to find ways to have our fans be able to walk through and say, ‘Gosh, look at this, gosh look at that,’ but I’ve also got to put some things that are going to help pay the bills.”
Last August, the University of Tennessee announced it had reached a long-term deal with Knoxville-based travel center giant Pilot for prominent signage throughout Neyland Stadium, including the football field. Florida International signed a five-year deal worth $6 million with Grammy-winning musician Pitbull that includes naming rights for the school’s 20,000-seat football stadium in Miami.
Texas Dow Employee Credit Union announced in 2022 a 10-year extension to remain as the naming-rights partner for UH’s 40,000-seat football stadium. As part of the company’s recent merger, the stadium will be rename as Space City Financial Stadium beginning with the 2025 season.
Credit: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/college/article/uh-athletics-school-looks-corporate-logos-revenue-20030804.php?utm_source=chatgpt.com