UCF stadium naming rights deal again close

For the third time in the last two years, the Bounce House is moving closer to getting a new name.

The UCF Board of Trustees is scheduled to hold a special meeting 11:30 a.m. Tuesday with only one item of new business on the agenda: naming of the UCF Football Stadium.

The UCF Athletics Association Board of Directors met this past Monday to approve a proposal from UCF athletics director Terry Mohajir to finalize a naming rights agreement for the stadium that is worth $19.5 million over 10 years between UCF and the naming partner, according to the UCFAA meeting agenda.

The deal is set to be presented to the board.

The partner is not directly named in the agenda, which adds that UCF recently identified a potential naming rights partner and began negotiations.

Instead, the partner is referred only as “Naming Partner” throughout the UCFAA agenda.

The agenda states that the negotiations have advanced to a stage where a deal is “imminent and governance approvals are required.”

The terms include that the naming partner has the right to request evaluation of the future value of the agreement in writing in 2027.

Tuesday’ s special trustees meeting was first reported by Bryson Turner of the Black and Gold Banneret. Unlike the UCFAA agenda, the main board’s agenda doesn’t include the details of the deal.

If approved by the trustees, the deal would go into effect July 1, according to the agenda.

The on-campus football stadium, which opened in 2007, had been named Spectrum Stadium since 2017. That came following the rebranding of Bright House Sports Network, a local cable company that originally acquired the naming rights in 2006.

UCF received $750,000 per year under the previous deal with Spectrum, according to the UCFAA agenda.

UCF has twice tried to land a naming rights partner for the football stadium.

The first time UCF sought out a naming rights deal with a roofing company, the deal fell through due to pressure from the Florida Legislature.

In February 2020, the Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi reported that the influential insurance industry and several prominent state politicians intervened behind the scenes to cancel the deal — worth $35 million over 15 years — with Roofclaim.com.

Then last August, UCF looked to land a naming rights deal with 3MG Roofing on a 12-year, $20 million agreement that would have renamed the football stadium “3MG Stadium.”

That deal, too, ultimately fell through.

[UCF BOT approves funding for design phase of football campus]

Mohajir told reporters Thursday that “there’s a real good chance” that the Bounce House would have a new name for the upcoming season.

“We’re working on it,” he said.

AILEEN PERILLA/SPECIALTO THE ORLANDO SENTINEL UCF is close to renaming its on-campus football stadium, and if approved by the trustees the deal would go into effect July 1.