The home of the Texas Tech football team has undergone a major facelift recently with the opening of the Jones AT&T Stadium south end zone building and the Womble Football Center.
A name change could be on the horizon, too.
Texas Tech’s 20-year stadium naming-rights agreement with AT&T runs through June 2026, and the next rights will be open for bidding.
“We have started initial conversations on naming rights to Jones AT&T Stadium,” Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt said last month. “We’ve had initial conversations with AT&T and look forward to ongoing conversation there, so that will be an ongoing, or you could say, a new revenue stream, because AT&T’s sponsorship payment was all done up front. So it’s been 15-plus years since we’ve had a revenue stream there, so that’ll be a new revenue stream for us.”
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The stadium name switched from Jones SBC Stadium to Jones AT&T Stadium in April 2006 after SBC acquired AT&T in 2005. Tech senior associate athletics director Robert Giovannetti said the original agreement with SBC in 2000 was a 20-year naming for $20 million, paid out over 10 years. An extension with AT&T, finalized in 2007, was a 20-year naming for $21 million, paid out over six years.
“In addition to the naming of the stadium,” Tech deputy AD Jonathan Botros said, “they also have a sponsorship package that includes exclusivity, so no other telecom partner can partner with us, so there’s a lot of value there.”
Tech officials have been brainstorming new ways to raise money in anticipation of college-sports programs soon entering an era of revenue sharing. If a federal judge gives final approval to the House v. NCAA settlement proposal in April, athletics departments will be able to share revenue with athletes beginning July 1. Tentatively, each school’s revenue-sharing pool is expected to start at $20.5 million a year, and Tech has committed to provide the full amount.
For the fiscal year that started Sept. 1, the university budgeted $14.71 million to athletics under “institutional operating and debt support.” Some, Tech President Lawrence Schovanec said in October, is for debt service on facilities. The entire transfer might not be necessary, Schovanec said, depending on the athletics department’s ability to raise new revenue.
“We talk about it every day,” Hocutt said.
Tech’s 10-year, $59.25 million contract with adidas, finalized in December, is more lucrative than its previous deal with Under Armour. That’ll help.
Other ideas under consideration:
∎ A concert at Jones AT&T Stadium: “There’s nothing to announce there yet,” Hocutt said, “other than Chase Jolesch, our chief revenue officer, is continuing to talk to the big, different promotional companies and concerts that are in Dallas and Denver and what opportunities may present themselves there.”
∎ Corporate logos on the field: In June, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved college football programs selling on-field sponsorship advertisements during regular-season games. They’ll be allowed one ad at the 50-yard line and two smaller ones elsewhere.
Ads on the field previously have been limited to postseason and neutral-site games. Tech’s going to take advantage of the loosened restrictions.
“Field naming, putting corporate logos on the playing surface of the football field,” Hocutt said, “is something that we’ve given the signoff for Learfield to go to market with that for us for next year.”
∎ Jersey patches: NCAA rules still prohibit sponsor patches on jerseys, but with schools under the gun to raise more money, the subject’s been much discussed.
“I think before long jersey patches will be approved,” Hocutt said, “and that will be a new revenue-generation opportunity for us.”
A sticking point: Apparel suppliers such as Nike, adidas and Under Armour have existing contracts with schools that prohibit other branding on uniforms.
Yahoo Sports reported in December that multi-media rights heavyweight Learfield plans to announce an initiative, Performance Partner Alliance, “to help deliver a jersey patch solution for its schools.”
“We’ve been at stagnation with arguably one of the most valuable aspects of college athletics — jersey patches,” Cole Gahagan, president and CEO of Learfield, told Yahoo Sports. “There is seemingly little to nothing anyone can do to actually get it moving. Activity has to start somewhere. We’ve got a responsibility to kick off that activity.
“The (apparel) performance partners are the first groups that you have to address. The NCAA is the other partner that must agree to this.”
It’s potentially lucrative for a school such as Tech. The Yahoo Sports report said Learfield’s estimates on the value of jersey patches range from $500,000 a year to as much as $12 million for top power-conference schools.
∎ Facilities tours: Hocutt and Botros noted this summer that the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Rangers monetize AT&T Stadium, The Star at Frisco and Globe Life Field by frequently opening their doors to the public for events outside of game days. Tech could do the same, especially with its new football facilities.
First, they want to make sure all the work’s done and day-to-day operations are going smoothly.
“That field club obviously has a lot of value to folks on the outside for having it for events,” Botros said. “We haven’t opened it up yet, so do we look at that? Possibly. Several of our facilities have those opportunities if we want to look at them.”
∎ Multimedia rights agreement: Texas Tech has been a longtime partner of Learfield.
“We’re within the last three years of our contractual relationship with Learfield,” Hocutt said, “so we are in conversations with them, we will talk to others and at the same time we’ll analyze is outsourcing the best approach to that line of business or is there a way to rethink that administratively and internally?
“Those are things that come to mind when we talk about additional revenue-stream opportunities.”
