Pitbull buys naming rights to FIU's football stadium, now "Pitbull Stadium"

Mr. Worldwide now owns a piece of college football. Florida International University announced it has sold the naming rights to its football stadium to Pitbull.

For $1.2 million per year for five years, FIU’s stadium will be known as Pitbull Stadium. “Mr. 305” hails from Miami and attended Miami Coral Park High School, just two miles from FIU’s campus. Pitbull is now the first musician with a college sports venue named after him.

As part of the deal, Pitbull will create an anthem for FIU, post about the school 12 times a year on social media, and attend at least one athletics fundraising event per year. He will also be the “Official Entrepreneur of FIU Athletics,” playing an active role in Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). Pitbull will be allowed to use Pitbull Stadium for 10 days each year and have two reserved suites to use at all home football games (40-person capacity and 20 VIP parking passes). Voli 305 Vodka, which is owned by Pitbull, will be a preferred brand distributed in the stadium, and Pitbull-affiliated performers will be able to perform halftime or postgame shows.

The FIU Panthers are coming off back-to-back 4-8 seasons under coach Mike MacIntyre. They haven’t had a winning season since Butch Davis was the head coach in 2018. FIU started its football program in 2002 and moved up to the FBS in 2004. The Panthers play in Conference USA and host Central Michigan in their home opener on Sept. 7.

The stadium, which opened in 1995 and seats 20,000, has had several names over the years, starting with FIU Community Stadium. In 2001, the name changed to Ocean Bank Field at FIU Stadium. From 2017 to 2022, it was known as Ricardo Silva Stadium. For the past two seasons, FIU has been searching for a new sponsor. This one is getting a ton of publicity. Dale!