Another school is jumping into the commercial jersey patch world, as Wyoming is set to announce a five-year deal worth $4.5M with energy infrastructure company Tallgrass, AD Tom Burman told Sports Business Journal.
The deal, which is the largest corporate contribution in school history, will see Tallgrass’ logo placed on Cowboy football and men’s and women’s basketball jerseys.
“I just think that we’re a little bit out in front,” Burman said of securing a jersey patch partner. “Not everybody has locked down deals yet. It’s a different brand in that it’s an energy-based company and what they call ‘midstream,’ [moving] natural gas primarily around the country. That’s the unique piece of it is who they are and what they are and the fact that Wyoming, which generally is probably a little bit slow to react, is out in front of something.”
Tallgrass has previously held relationships in the sports space that were limited to the Rockies and Broncos, while this deal is its first foray into college sports.
The company has a significant hold in Wyoming, with hundreds of employees operating thousands of miles of pipelines and other critical energy infrastructure across the state.
“Part of their interest is they wanted to be great corporate citizens in our communities, where they are doing a lot of business,” Burman said. “… It was more of a, ‘Hey, how do we tell this story? How do we tell the story that we’re partnering with the university and we’re more than so many impressions on a digital ad.’”
That Wyoming is among the first movers in the jersey patch space comes during a time in which schools across the country are rapidly commercializing in order to meet the growing cost of doing business and, in particular, paying athletes.
Burman told SBJ the school was sharing around $3M in revenue this year, while the $500,000 annual net off the Tallgrass deal will help fill that bucket more fully. The school is also in the process of seeking a partner for a corporate field logo and naming rights to its basketball arena.
Wyoming’s jersey patch deal — which was brokered by the school’s local Learfield affiliate, Wyoming Sports Properties — makes it the second such agreement in the Mountain West and among the first in the country.
Other schools that have announced corporate patch partners include UNLV, LSU and Arkansas.