The Florida-based Flagler Credit Union has secured a multi-million dollar naming rights deal, with approval from the Florida Atlantic University Board of Trustees, to rename the football stadium from “FAU Stadium” to “Flagler Credit Union Stadium.”
At Tuesday’s special BOT meeting, several board members thanked everyone, both inside and out of the athletics department, who helped throughout the process of finalizing the deal for the stadium’s naming rights change.
“Our athletic director, Brian White, has led the search for and has secured a corporate sponsorship for the naming of the FAU football stadium. This is an impressive deal,” said BOT Chair Piero Bussani in the meeting.
FAU Interim President Stacy Volnick agreed that “the deal in itself is very impressive, not only for Florida Atlantic but for our conference and for collegiate athletics.”
Vice President & Director of Athletics, Brian White mentioned that this historic deal is the highest in the American Athletic Conference, where the university’s athletics programs compete.
“And finally, this is a company with over $2 billion in assets. So, very strong company that we feel very comfortable partnering with for long term,” White said in the meeting. In addition, he believes the “Flagler” name within Florida is a good choice.
In regard to Henry Flagler’s legacy in the development of tourism in Florida, where he purchased several railway lines that consolidated into the Florida East Coast Railway. The naming of various institutions further cements his remembrance, including Flagler College in St. Augustine, the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum in Palm Beach and Flagler County in northeastern Florida.
The 30,000-seat football stadium that opened in 2011 will change its name, but the field itself will remain the same, White clarified. The field is named after Howard Schnellenberger, FAU’s first head football coach, who led the team for 11 seasons and retired the year the stadium opened.
The “sponsorship” portion of the proposed board action letter states that Flagler Credit Union will pay FAU more than $22 million over 15 years.
On that note, board member Shaun Davis reminded the rest of the board that they’ve been down this road before regarding past similar naming rights agreements for the stadium. In 2013, the BOT voted to rename the stadium after GEO Group, a private prison company based in Boca Raton, for $6 million over 12 years.
However, the company’s background sparked some outrage within the FAU community.
“The company has been the defendant in over a hundred lawsuits involving human rights violation in the past seven years, including sexual mistreatment of inmates and illegal drug smuggling in their detention facilities,” reads a 2013 University Press article.
According to the proposed board action, FAU will complete the installation of signage before the 2025-26 football season begins. White announced the athletics department will unveil the Flagler Credit Union logo for the stadium at the annual Boca Raton Bowl game on Wednesday.
Michael Cook is the Managing Editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected].
