Pitbull Secures Naming Rights for College Football Stadium

If you call yourself “Mr. 305,” it only makes sense that you’d have your name on some of the buildings in Miami’s area code. Pitbull has reportedly secured the naming rights to the football stadium at Florida International University.

The deal for Pitbull’s name to go up on the stadium was set into motion on early Tuesday. That is when FIU’s board of trustees voted to approve the sale. It will cost the entertainer $1.2 million a year for a span of five years to turn the stadium into Pitbull Stadium.

There currently is no naming rights holder in place as the stadium has been most recently known as FIU Stadium. Before that, it was named after Italian businessman and investor Riccardo Silva. In addition to being the home football field of the FIU Panthers, the 20,000-seat capacity stadium also hosts home games for the Miami FC professional soccer team.

If you’ve been paying attention in recent years, you may have noticed Pitbull has attempted to diversify his income outside of making hits like “Timber” and “Time of Our Lives.” Not to mention it seems like his run of guesting on songs by just about every pop artist may have started to slow.

In 2019, for example, Pitbull started a marketing agency called 305 Worldwide. The business brands itself as a “multicultural marketing agency.” Pitbull also now has Mr. 305 Records. The record label is a partnership with Sony Music and currently has 13 acts signed according to its website. Of course, you can probably guess whose signature vodka will be served at Pitbull Stadium. Yep, he’s got that, too.

Pitbull told ESPN he believes having his name on FIU’s football stadium will be a “groundbreaking” moment that will have other schools following the trend.

“You’re going to see that every other university is going to want to do the same thing,” he said in an interview with ESPN. “But the difference is, we don’t do this for propaganda, we do it from the heart. We do it because it’s meaningful.”

In addition to getting his name on the stadium and his vodka in its concession stands, Pitbull also will have access to use the stadium 10 times each year of the deal. He also has started working on an “anthem” for the school.

The FIU Panthers kickoff their football season Aug. 31 at Indiana University. The team’s first regular season game at Pitbull Stadium will be Sept. 7 against Central Michigan.

Source: ESPN