COORS NAME GONE

Events center seeking sponsor

The University of Colorado is a step closer to securing a new naming-rights partner for its basketball and volleyball arena by dropping the title Coors Events Center in exchange for CU Events Center, the school announced Tuesday.

The arena, whose construction was completed in 1979, received its previous name in 1990 when the Coors Foundation made a one-time $5-million donation to help build the Dal Ward Athletic Center on campus. CU athletic director Rick George reached out to Coors Foundation officials and family members to gauge interest in a new financial commitment for continued naming rights, but both parties declined, according to a news release.

“The Coors family has traditionally been very good to the University of Colorado, and they understood why we asked to go in this direction,” George said. “I can’t express enough our appreciation for their support through the years, and that support will be memorialized in the CU Events Center.”

College stadium naming rights have exploded in value during the modern sports era. The University of Southern California will receive $69 million over 16 years from Delta for its brand on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Alaska Airlines will dish out $41 million over a decade for naming rights at the University of Washington’s Husky Stadium. The numbers hardly dip for non-Power Five schools. Colorado State and Canvas Credit Union announced in April a 15-year, $37.7 million sponsorship deal for naming rights on the Rams’ stadium.

The Buffs will consider many factors in identifying the right partner moving forward for the CU Events Center.

“We’re certainly talking to a lot of different people about a relationship, and we’ll continue to have those discussions,” George told The Denver Post in May. “When you’re doing naming-rights deals, those are typically conversations and discussions that you’re having over many months, and it does take some time.”