In less than two weeks, South Carolina will begin its 2024 season at home against Old Dominion and 80,000 folks will gather inside Williams-Brice Stadium ready to see some important things.
Perhaps, too, they will ask this: Is a sponsor logo going to be painted on the Williams-Brice grass?
Yes, that’s a possibility.
“Well you just have to imagine — in this day and age where you need to find new revenue streams that didn’t exist previously and you’re given this sort of opportunity, absolutely,” Gamecock Club CEO Wayne Hiott told The State. “We’ve been talking about this forever. It’s just finding the right partner at the right price. That’s important to us.”
In June, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a rule that now allows corporate advertisements to be placed on football fields across all three divisions. Sponsor logos will be allowed to be placed in three spots: Centered on the 50-yard line and/or in two smaller spots elsewhere on the playing surface.
The approval came with the House v. NCAA antitrust settlement looming, which will require schools to back pay $2.8 billion in damages to former student-athletes and provides a revue-sharing model that allows schools to pay athletes around $22 million annually.
When asked by The State in May about the possibility of South Carolina putting corporate logos on the Williams-Brice Stadium field and even its football jerseys, USC president Michael Amiridis didn’t rule out the possibility.
“That is not outside the box right now,” Amiridis said. “We have discussions about how can we increase the revenue through other avenues that we may have? Can we expand the markets? Absolutely.”
Yet, it’s been two-and-a-half months since the NCAA OK’d on-field sponsor logos and only one SEC school has secured a partnership.
Last week, Tennessee announced a partnership with Pilot, the Knoxville-based travel center brand, that will feature the company’s logo on the Neyland Stadium playing surface and its signage around the stadium.
While the dollar amount was not released, it’s a 20-year deal and will make Pilot the presenting partner of the $337 million Neyland Stadium renovation project .
Like Tennessee, South Carolina is likely going to start paying itsstudent athletes about $22 million annually. And like Tennessee, South Carolina will soon announce a plan to renovate Williams-Brice Stadium.
Closer to home, one in-state school has already taken initiative. The state Election Commission is paying Coastal Carolina $250,000 to place two of its logos on the school’s teal Brooks Field, where the Chanticleers football team plays, for the 2024 season, per the Post & Courier .
So will the Gamecocks, too, have a corporate logo on their football field in 2024?
“I would be surprised, but we’re actively having multiple conversations,” Hiott said. “Learfield is our (multi-media rights) partner, so it’s a collective effort between the two of us.
“Not saying anything for future years or venues, but I would be surprised if there was anything on the field for this year.”
Charles Bloom, an executive associate athletics director at South Carolina, also didn’t want to rule out the possibility.
“We talked about it briefly and I don’t know what conversations, who’s interested and who’s not,” he said. “We’re two weeks away, so it would be a tight fit. But, obviously, it wouldn’t take much: A stencil for the field and a check.”
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