Cardinal Stadium will likely have an expanded name and a new corporate sponsor when the 2020-21 football season rolls around.
Having reached a settlement with John Schnatter over the old stadium naming rights last October, the University of Louisville is free to pursue a new corporate partner.
On Monday UofL’s Purchasing Department issued a Request for Proposal inviting interested parties to submit their bids for working with the University. The proposed target date for a Letter of Intent is the week of March 2:
“The University of Louisville Athletics Department is seeking a driven, innovative, and collaborative partner to help secure Naming Rights for Cardinal Stadium. This partner will conduct a thorough valuation of the project, develop and execute a customized go-to-market strategy grounded in analytics and market-specific data to generate multiple viable candidates, and ultimately identify the best long-term partner for Louisville Athletics.”
While noting that dates are subject to change, the following schedule was included in the RFP:
Jan. 28 — Deadline for written questions.
Feb. 5 — RFP proposals due.
Feb. 10 (week of) — Shortlist announcement.
March 2 (week of) — Letter of Intent.
The invitation states that proposals should include comprehensive valuation of the Naming Rights to Cardinal Stadium, customized brand engagement to elevate the Louisville fan experience, innovative and strategic consulting to push impact beyond the stadium and game day.
Why would there be any optimism that a big stadium naming rights contract is in the offing? It’s been widely known for the better of a year that that opportunity was available for a sponsor.
It’s also becoming more well know–if it isn’t already–that U of L is in competition with the LAA (Louisville Arena Authority) for naming rights sponsors for BOTH the stadium and the downtown arena. If you were such an entity, where would you rather have your name? A stadium that hosts less than ten major events per year that really doesn’t get much publicity outside of those events, or an arena hosting ten times that number of bookings situated near two major interstates? And I’m not particularly optimistic that the LAA will easily land their sponsor either.
You can put all of the RFPs out there you want. That doesn’t mean much except that U of L would like some more revenue. There’s less of it everywhere they look…
Funny how some people forget football is the king of college sports. Since it’s the pigskin, how about Fischer’s Stadium for the bacon-makin’ people?
Gotta be UPS Cardinal Stadium right?
I’m thinking UPS has had more than ample opportunities to step and be a major, major sponsor but the company has yet to come through in a big way. I have a gut feeling that it could be Norton Healthcare because it is spending money all over Louisville promoting their brand.