New handle for home
Team’s stadium gets naming-rights sponsor for its second season
FORT LAUDERDALE — Inter Miami CF Stadium will soon go by a different name, with Inter Miami expected to change their venue’s name to AutoNation’s DRV PNK Stadium.
It will represent the first naming-rights transaction for the stadium, which opened last year for Inter Miami’s inaugural season in Major League Soccer.
The club had signs that read, “DRV PNK STADIUM” being put up on its stadium Wednesday.
Inter Miami built their stadium in Fort Lauderdale on the site of the former Lockhart Stadium, which opened in 1959 before closing in 2016 and being demolished in 2019 to make way for Inter Miami’s facilities — including a 50,000-square foot training center.
SBI Soccer was the first to report on the stadium’s name change.
Inter Miami and AutoNation are having a “special announcement” presentation on Friday at the stadium, where Inter Miami managing owner Jorge Mas and Marc Cannon, AutoNation’s executive vice president and chief customer experience officer, are scheduled to address the media in the morning.
A club spokesperson declined to comment on the stadium’s expected name change.
It isn’t yet known if AutoNation is also becoming the team’s front-jersey sponsor.
Mas said in late February that he expected Inter Miami to have a front-jersey sponsor for their second season.
Inter Miami and the Colorado Rapids are the only two teams in MLS without a front-jersey sponsor heading into the 2021 season.
AutoNation is a Fort Lauderdale-based car retailer founded in 1996 with over 300 locations nationwide.
Through their DRV PNK mission, AutoNation has partnered with local and national cancer charities across the U.S., raising and donating over $26 million to cancer research and treatment.