College football team to play in ‘Pitbull Stadium’ after rapper agrees naming rights deal
Welcome to Pitbull Stadium, home of your FIU Panthers.
Florida International announced Tuesday that it could sign a 10-year deal with international recording artist, Grammy-winning entrepreneur Armando Christian Pérez — the Miami native better known as Pitbull — to put his name on its college football stadium.
Perez will pay $1.2 million per year for the naming rights over the next five years, the university said. He will have an option in August 2029 to extend the deal for another five years and continue the rebranding.
“Yes, we are going to make history in Pitbull Stadium,” Perez said at a news conference in Miami. “This is not just an announcement. This is a movement. This is truly history in the making.”
FIU said it is the first agreement in which an artist owns the naming rights to a stadium. Pérez also will be involved in FIU’s name, image and likeness efforts, which allow student-athletes to receive compensation, athletic director Scott Carr said.
“This is a historic day for FIU Athletics to partner in a unique way with a world-renowned artist and a great person who truly values relationships and his community,” Carr said. “Armando’s financial support is program-changing, but having him provide a microphone to amplify FIU will be even more beneficial to the growth of our brand.”
As part of the deal, Pérez will get 10 days of free admission to the stadium each year, with some tickets for those events reserved for FIU students. A vodka brand he owns will now be a preferred brand at the stadium, he will have access to two suites and 20 VIP parking passes for home soccer games, and he will be asked to compose a national anthem that will be played during the school’s track and field events. Under the agreement, Pérez will be designated as the “Official Entrepreneur of FIU Athletics.”
“It’s a real blessing, a real honor,” Pérez said. “Let’s make history.”
Pitbull – also known as “Mr. 305”, a nod to Miami’s area code – began his music career in the South Florida rap scene around 2004 and eventually became one of the most recognized artists in the world.
“Pitbull’s career reflects FIU’s rise to become one of the nation’s top public research universities,” said FIU President Kenneth A Jessell. “Like FIU, he started out in ’305 and went global.”
Pérez has long been an advocate for supporting education in South Florida. FIU said he founded the first tuition-free SLAM! (Sports Leadership, Arts, and Management) public charter school in Miami in 2012.
“This is about uniting everybody,” he said. “This is about bringing everybody together. Hard work pays off. They say to me, ‘You’re so lucky.’ Well, the harder I work, the luckier I get.”