UCLA's Pauley Pavilion Is Said to Put Naming Rights Up for Sale

[BleedGopher]

per Bloomberg:

Pauley Pavilion, the 50-year-old home to UCLA’s record-setting basketball program, may get a new, longer name.

As part of a 10-year, $144 million extension of the multimedia rights partnership between the university and WME/IMG, the sports talent agency will look for what’s called an affiliated naming-rights partner for the arena, according to people with direct knowledge of the deal. That means Pauley Pavilion will still be part of the facility’s official name. (Think: Big Company Arena at Pauley Pavilion.)

John Brody, who negotiated MetLife Inc.’s contract to put its name on the stadium that houses football’s New York Giants and Jets, said the naming rights to Pauley Pavilion, which he called “the crown jewel of college basketball,” could be worth as much as $5 million a year. That price would make it the richest naming rights deal in college sports, trumping the 10-year, $41 million agreement signed in September by the University of Washington and Alaska Airlines.

“It’s even more than just a men’s college basketball naming rights deal,” Brody said, adding that potential partners would have ties to the No. 2 U.S. media market. Among the potential partners, according to Brody, is Farmers Insurance Group, which attached itself to a $1.2 billion NFL Los Angeles stadium project that has since been declared dead.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...avilion-said-to-put-naming-rights-up-for-sale

Go Gophers!!

 

[WindyCityGopher]

I for one would love to see games played on the Nell and John Wooden Court in Farmers Insurance Arena at Pauley Pavilion. By the time you say it all the game's over.

 

[Ope3]

Williams Arena/Mariucci

I for one would love to see games played on the Nell and John Wooden Court in Farmers Insurance Arena at Pauley Pavilion. By the time you say it all the game's over.

How long before a deal like that happens in Minnesota? Since we are used to TCF Bank Stadium it would not be a shock to do the same for the Pav/Williams Arena/Rider/Mariucci. It would put a nice dent into the Athletes Village fundraising.

 

[SuperSenior13]

How long before a deal like that happens in Minnesota? Since we are used to TCF Bank Stadium it would not be a shock to do the same for the Pav/Williams Arena/Rider/Mariucci. It would put a nice dent into the Athletes Village fundraising.

shocked it hasn't been done already

 

[60's Guy]

shocked it hasn't been done already

And it should have been...

 

[oak_street1981]

I think they need to name Pauley Pavillion after Wooden's bag man who handed all the cash to Kareem and all the great players they bought in the early late 60's early 70's run that made Wooden's reputation.

If you look at the record books, Wooden's winning percentage and NCAA Tournament win totals improved greatly in the last ten years of his career when they started giving cash and cars to players.

Sam Gilbert Arena

Actually they should tear the dump down and build a real basketball arena. Pauley Pavillion looks like a giant HS gym. It used to have massive empty spaces behind the baskets and sideline seats way beyond the baseline, with awful sightlines.

 

[oak_street1981]

To further comment on the Wooden "legacy", the NCAA was notoriously corrupt and selective on their enforcement.

Tark the Shark and Bob Knight often complained about the NCAA and their unwillingness to take on the big name cheaters. Kentucky was known to pay players. Many top notch schools like Michigan admitted, and kept academically eligible, players that could barely read and speak with proper diction. UCLA paid top players to show up and play for Wooden, and kept the payments coming.

Meanwhile the NCAA threw the book at Minnesota and Bill Musselman for a bunch of small time violations costing a team that crushed NCAA champion Marquette by 20 in Milwaukee a likely NCAA championship.

We will see if the trend continues, as the NCAA has the goods on North Carolina. NC committed a much more serious violations of NCAA rules, in a more blatant and "institutional" way than anything Haskins and Gangelhoff, yet to this day nothing has happened to North Carolina or "Ol' Roy".

Some sort of ruling is expected soon, since as much as the NCAA tried to bury this, they were finally forced to investigate, and the slime was not too hard to find. Roy Williams is slime and North Carolina probably cheated in some fashion for the last 35 years. They probably will get one year of probation.

 

[Sports_Realist]

A few years ago UCLA decided to renovate rather than replace Pauley Pavilion, a move dictated in large part by sentiment because the aged John Wooden was still alive when the project was approved and people in the athletic department didn't want to tear down the building where he built his legend despite a clear need to do so. As a result, UCLA spent $136,000,000 to get far less for the money than one would expect for that cost. In a building in which the big criticism has long been that too many seats are too far from the floor, this problem went largely unfixed as did the open corner problem on the lower level which costs the school potential revenue from what could be desirable seats if configured properly. My reason for bringing this up is that UCLA could have spared itself the media jabs it will take for putting a corporate name on the building by taking the thing down and putting up a new one a few years ago, getting more money for the rights in the process.

 

[beavergopher]

You guys are harsh. Wooden must be spinning in his grave. For all it's flaws, Pauley had too much history to be torn down.

 

[GophersInIowa]

How long before a deal like that happens in Minnesota? Since we are used to TCF Bank Stadium it would not be a shock to do the same for the Pav/Williams Arena/Rider/Mariucci. It would put a nice dent into the Athletes Village fundraising.

How about naming the court in Williams Arena Gopherhole Court? Similar to James Naismith Court at the Phog in Kansas. If we all chip in $5 do you think we can make it happen?

 

[LesBolstad]

You guys are harsh. Wooden must be spinning in his grave. For all it's flaws, Pauley had too much history to be torn down.

Agreed. Went to couple games right after renovation and place was awesome. Sightlines were very good- better than the new cookie cutter arenas. Students sit courtside ala Mich St. Outer concourse is basically a basketball museum and worth the cost of admission.

A lot of money spent, but i think they did a good job. A new arena would have been 3X cost; and believe it or not- attendance at UCLA is not that great.
They have a hard time getting 7,500 for games. They dont need a new 15k arena.