Hey there, Aggies fans. I’ve got some breaking news for you, and I wanted to be one of the first in your inbox to tell you what is going on in the world of Aggie Athletics.
New Mexico State University has some significant news involving a corporate partner that has purchased the naming rights to the Pan American Center. I’ll tell you more about that in just a second.
I admittedly was eating breakfast when I found out the news, and I’ve got to tell you, it was certainly interesting to hear. This is something that has been widely anticipated and expected, and of course, as a reporter, I already have a lot of other questions about what this agreement means, how much it is worth and where that money is ultimately going.
Nonetheless, I am happy to see more money being infused into the New Mexico State Athletics program. That is something this athletic department needs, and whenever new revenue is coming into the program, it is worth paying attention to.
But before we get into the news, I want to remind you that AGGREGATOR is a reader-supported publication.
Without AGGREGATOR, there is a pretty good chance this story wouldn’t be in the Las Cruces Sun-News until a day or two from now. Instead, I wanted to get it to you as quickly as possible and make sure AGGREGATOR readers were among the first people in Las Cruces to know what was happening.
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Now, let’s get to the news.
Sources: Pan Am Center to be Renamed White Sands FCU Arena at Pan Am Center
All right, Aggies fans, significant news from the world of Aggieland.
The venerable Pan American Center, which first opened its doors on Nov. 30, 1968, has had its naming rights sold.
The Pan Am has housed the 1970 Final Four team, hosted countless concerts and events, and twice a year becomes the scene of New Mexico State University’s commencement ceremonies. It is as much of an institution as anything we have in Las Cruces, and as I have said many times before, I believe it is the most important indoor facility for music and sports in the entire Borderland.
I will stand on that all day.
According to CollegeAD, a news and information source covering the college athletics industry, New Mexico State has entered into an agreement with White Sands Federal Credit Union to rename the building the White Sands FCU Arena at the Pan Am Center.
The reported price tag is significant: $13 million over 10 years.
(My artist conception of what a logo could look like)
Sources have told AGGREGATOR that the deal is not yet completed, but an announcement is expected shortly.
With a new name will, of course, come new branding. My understanding is that you should expect to eventually see White Sands Federal Credit Union branding prominently displayed around the arena. That could include signage on the outside of the building, branding throughout the interior and potentially on the basketball court itself.
And going forward, when you see the official name on tickets, schedules and other New Mexico State materials, you can expect to see White Sands FCU Arena at the Pan Am Center.
The naming-rights book has finally been opened at New Mexico State.
And $13 million over 10 years represents a significant infusion of money for the university. There will naturally be questions about exactly how that money is distributed and what it ultimately helps pay for, and those are among the questions I want answered once New Mexico State formally announces the agreement.
A naming-rights agreement for the Pan American Center has felt increasingly inevitable, particularly after UNM’s famous basketball arena became The Pit Powered by Nusenda, with another credit union putting its name alongside one of New Mexico’s most recognizable sports venues. Naming rights for the Pan American Center and Aggie Memorial Stadium have been something worth watching for quite some time.
But I will tell you something else.
Whenever I hear “The Pit Powered by Nusenda,” I still call it The Pit. I’ve told plenty of people in my little semicircle of insiders that I’m probably going to do exactly the same thing here.
White Sands FCU Arena at the Pan Am Center
I mean, I will still say “Pan Am”
Because that’s what older people do. We call buildings by the name they had when we grew up with them, and after nearly 58 years of people in Las Cruces saying they are going to “the Pan Am,” I don’t think that phrase is disappearing anytime soon.
Nonetheless, this is significant news for New Mexico State and its athletic department, and it is news that is just breaking. I don’t have much more for you at this moment, but as more information becomes available — particularly once New Mexico State formally announces the agreement — AGGREGATOR will have it.
For now, $13 million. Ten years. White Sands FCU Arena at the Pan Am Center.
And, at least around here, probably still just the Pan Am.
I have some brief commentary below.
BACA: This was much needed for New Mexico State.
Now, I can get into the semantics about the value of a naming-rights agreement. It is a valuable tool to infuse additional revenue into professional and college sports. SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, which houses the Rams and Chargers of the NFL, has a naming-rights agreement reportedly worth $700 million over 20 years. Arkansas landed a $70 million, 14-year agreement with CommunityAmerica Credit Union, while Texas Tech landed a 15-year, $75 million naming-rights agreement with Galaxy.
So, yes, New Mexico State’s reported $13 million over 10 years is a fraction of what some of the bigger schools are getting. Arkansas and Texas Tech also reside in much bigger conferences with much bigger television audiences and considerably more money flowing through their athletic departments. It is completely understandable that New Mexico State isn’t going to command the same value.
And as I mentioned above, whenever it comes to the actual name, I still call The Pit “The Pit.” I will never not call it The Pit. If you ever hear me call it “The Pit Powered by Nusenda,” there’s a pretty good chance I’m being facetious to whoever I’m talking to.
I’m sure the same thing is going to happen with the Pan American Center. But I’m also going to embrace this because I’m interested in the little changes that come with something like this.
Does that old-school-looking Pan American Center typeface on the side of the building get replaced by a flashy White Sands Federal Credit Union logo that incorporates the Pan American Center into it? I can create logos, too, by the way.
That stuff is exciting to me because changes like this require attention to detail. Eventually somebody is going to ask, “Where’s the concert?” and the answer will technically be, “White Sands FCU Arena.” Maybe it’ll take 60 years for people around here to get used to saying that. By then, White Sands FCU might not even be a thing.
But the fact of the matter is that naming rights represent money that is sitting there for colleges, professional teams and venues all over the country. It is incumbent upon the people running those organizations to find those opportunities and act on them.
I’m a big heavy metal fan, and one of the things I’ve always found fascinating is what happened with Metallica. They started as this underground metal band in the early 1980s, playing smaller venues. They even played Eastern New Mexico University inside the student union building, and I have a poster from that show hanging in my office.
Then Metallica became Metallica.
Within a matter of years, they went from those smaller venues to playing stadiums, including Aggie Memorial Stadium right here in Las Cruces. And once they became one of the biggest bands in the world, people accused them of selling out. Your songs are on MTV. You’re selling T-shirts with your logo on them. You’re trying to maximize profit.
I always think about conversations like that in a silly way.
Your job is to make more money.
Unless you’re Mother Teresa, your job is not to intentionally dwindle your income.
New Mexico State University has long struggled to balance the ledger and find corners to cut every which way. Former AD Mario Moccia did a fantastic job of navigating that reality for many years, and now New Mexico State has finally entered the world of modern, 2020s-era college athletics where seemingly every asset has some sort of potential commercial value attached to it.
That isn’t a knock on previous administrations, either. The backwards way the state of New Mexico has historically operated has meant that some of the fruits available to institutions elsewhere — particularly Power Four schools — haven’t always been as readily available here. Now those opportunities are increasingly becoming part of life at the Group of Six level, too.
UNM has something of value. New Mexico State has something of value.
It’s the basketball team playing on the court, but it’s also the building itself. Every single time that basketball team plays there, every time a musician performs there and every time that arena is mentioned publicly, there is value attached to that name.
White Sands FCU Arena is a gigantic commercial.
White Sands has already been a major sponsor and longtime partner of New Mexico State. They’ve sponsored giveaways and have had their name attached to Aggie Athletics for years. Increasing that exposure makes sense in a world where banks and credit unions increasingly dominate the financial landscape, particularly in a place like Las Cruces with a burgeoning economy.
It is natural for a company like White Sands Federal Credit Union to want to do business at this level with the Pan American Center.
And frankly, I’m all about that all day, every day.
When you get a deal like this, to the victor go the spoils, and you have to give credit to AD Joe Fields and his staff for putting together something this significant. Once the deal is signed and officially announced, I don’t think $13 million suddenly shoots New Mexico State up the ranks of importance in the college athletics world. That’s not what this is.
This is about keeping up with the Joneses.
College athletics has become an arms race for revenue, and you have to find additional money wherever you can get it. I just posted a column last night saying how disappointed I was to see only 9,189 people at the football game, leaving Aggie Memorial Stadium at less than one-third capacity.
But think about the other side of that equation. If someone’s butt isn’t in a seat but they’re sitting at home watching a basketball game and they repeatedly hear “White Sands FCU Arena,” that person still has inherent commercial value. There are eyeballs watching New Mexico State Athletics regardless of whether those eyeballs happen to be sitting inside the building.
That matters when you’re sitting across the table from a potential corporate partner and showing them the books. You can say we’d love to do business with you because New Mexico State is a thriving enterprise, Las Cruces is a growing economy, people are watching us, and now we need to find a number that makes sense for everybody.
Hell, I’m about to commission a survey myself to demonstrate to advertisers the viability of AGGREGATOR and its ability to make money long-term beyond Las Cruces. Different scale, obviously, but the principle is the same. If you have something valuable, your job is to demonstrate that value and find somebody willing to invest in it.
And it is important to acknowledge when that work gets done.
That doesn’t mean previous administrations weren’t doing it, and it doesn’t mean whoever comes after this administration won’t be looking for the next opportunity. Your job when you occupy one of those positions is to think about tomorrow as much as you think about today.
And today looks pretty damn good.
If everything proceeds as reported, New Mexico State will have an arena called White Sands FCU Arena at the Pan Am Center through 2036.
And it’ll still be the same old Pan American Center to you and me.
My seat isn’t going to feel any different. It already feels like it’s about to break because I’m a big dude. The basketball team is going to elicit the same cheers from the crowd. The coach will still be yelling at his players and stomping his feet. Aggies fans will still be celebrating wins and complaining about losses on the drive home.
There are just going to be a few different pieces of decoration around the building. Maybe there’s a decal on the court that costs a hundred bucks to physically put down but represents part of a deal worth $13 million over the next decade to New Mexico State University.
That’s a trade I’ll take.
So congratulations to the school we all cheer for. This is an important step toward becoming an institution that gets to enjoy some of the same fruits that schools much bigger than us have been enjoying for years.
Call it White Sands FCU Arena if you want.
I’m still going to call it the Pan Am. But Regardless, I am happy for NMSU.
James
I will see you later with more football news!
Naming rights are the easiest money left on the table and most schools sit on it too long. $13M over 10 years isn't SoFi money, but it's revenue that doesn't depend on butts in seats - the brand gets seen whether the building's full or not. That's the real lesson: you don't need Power Four scale to monetize attention, you just need someone willing to put a number on it. Every building, every broadcast, every jersey has a price. Find it before someone else does.