FAU’s on-campus football stadium will now be called Flagler Credit Union Stadium at Howard Schnellenberger Field. The naming rights deal is a 15 year deal that is worth $22.5 million. It is the largest naming rights deal in the American Athletic Conference (AAC), and one of the largest in the Group of Five (G5).
“We are so excited… we are so proud of this stadium,” FAU athletic director Brian White said. “I don’t think it’s any secret that we did want to have a great corporate partner at a good investment level and a good long-term, stable partner. I think we got that with Flagler Credit Union. I think the name Flagler in the state of Florida was locally relevant – and that mattered.”
Flagler Credit Union, which was formerly Flagler Bank, is a financial cooperative whose mission is enriching people’s lives.
“It’s easy to slap your name up on the building,” Flagler Credit Union CEO Brian Waldron said. “But you have to make sure it makes sense, not only for you, but for the university itself. It’s a name recognition piece… for us it’s being involved in campus or with the community at large. To bring everyone together with sports is really important. When you come together and see people celebrating… isn’t that an awesome part of being enriched?”
This deal comes just two weeks after FAU named Zach Kittley their new head football coach. Kittley, who was the offensive coordinator at Texas Tech, is now the youngest head coach in college football at 33 years old.
The Owls are coming off a 3-9 season under former head coach Tom Herman. FAU is certainly looking for new beginnings in what’s expected to be an air-raid offense.
This deal also comes just one day before the Boca Raton Bowl, which will take place Wednesday night at 5:30 PM. Western Kentucky will play James Madison with the game airing on ESPN.
“We thought if we could get it done before the Boca Bowl, it would add a splash and we could celebrate it at the Boca Bowl,” White said. “But that wasn’t necessarily the guiding principle, but it was more so as we were coming down the stretch, we thought ‘hey let’s shoot for right before the Boca Bowl’ as it maybe adds some buzz with the game coming up.”