Half a million dollars. That's how much money a year the Carilion Clinic will pay Virginia Tech over the next ten years for naming rights of the Cassell Coliseum floor.
"This naming reflects the growing partnership between Carilion Clinic and Virginia Tech, and the commitment our organizations both have to our region," Virginia Tech President Timothy D. Sands said in a release. "This public-private partnership can be seen in our Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute, and now it will be highlighted to even greater degree in the name of our most prominent court."
According to Virginia Tech Director of Athletics Whit Babcock, the sponsorship will help fund scholarships and improvements to Cassell Coliseum which will benefit multiple programs, including Hokies men's and women's basketball, volleyball, and wrestling.
"Virginia Tech athletics and Carilion are committed to the continued wellness and good health of our friends and neighbors across the greater New River Valley and Roanoke region," Babcock said in a release. "We hope the Hokies can inspire others to participate in sports, to stay active, and to get out and exercise. Participating in sports provides numerous benefits to our youth. I am a product of the student-athlete experience and I believe in all that it teaches, from youth sports through the college ranks. Carilion's support will help us to do even more to promote healthy lifestyles on campus and in our community."
"Championship-level teams have to attract top student-athletes," Babcock added. "We want to be the best in the ACC in all facets – that's our goal. Scholarships and facilities are two very important keys to those objectives, and this partnership is another way to help the Hokies maintain a competitive edge. We are extremely proud of our partnership with Carilion. They are committed to the success and well-being of the Hokie Nation."
Earlier this year Virginia Tech and the Hokie Club announced the 110% Hokie Campaign to help cover the new total cost of attendance for studant athletes at Tech.
For more than 40 years, the maximum allowable NCAA Division I athletics scholarship covered tuition, fees, room, board, and books but not the incidental personal costs of attending college. Beginning August 1, 2015, that will change.
In January 2014, the NCAA passed legislation allowing institutions to pay a student-athletes full cost of attendance (COA), essentially covering the scholarship "gap." These scholarship enhancements (of $3,280 for in-state and $3,620 for out-of-state at Virginia Tech) will increase the total scholarship bill by approximately $950,000, to approximately $12.9 million annually.
A student's cost of attendance is an estimate of the expenses designed to represent his/her projected annual cost to attend a specific college or university. Each school's financial aid office determines COA, using broad federal guidelines originating from the Higher Education Act of 1965. The cost of attendance number serves as a maximum, and comprises only those expenses that are directly related to college attendance. Typical items include tuition, fees, room, board, books, and now, miscellaneous personal expenses, transportation home, etc.
Comments
Awesome news! An extra $500k a year will surely help our facilities.
I am liking our new administration more and more every day.
Huge. Great news, and it's awesome to see Whit squeezing some sponsorship money out of Cassell without having to name it something completely ridiculous. I actually think Virginia Tech Carilion Court sounds pretty good.
Funnily enough, I read that and am typing this from the VTCRI.
Now, if you'll all excuse me, I'm off to do more of that life-changing research.
This is from 2011, but I think we did alright on this deal.
Comparable College football and basketball naming rights
I like it! This is how you choose a name. Capitalist edition.
I bet Lewis-Gale is pissed.
http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2014/november/3/relationship-beamer-te...
If they want to come in and pay us an even $1 mil a year for the next decade, I'm sure all will be forgiven and forgotten.
bet they could have the court name, for say, $501,000....
Too late for that, Carilion seems to have a pretty productive relationship with Virginia Tech. I think this move benefits them both.
I know.
The Carilion partnership makes sense with the residency program for VT being held at Carilion.
Fun fact: the VTCRI is currently paying me to sit here and type this.
This made me laugh. I'm sure you have a grant with some goals and milestones to the grant. I'd love to get the grant that says -
Milestone 1: Find the function of protein X in disease Y.
Milestone 2: Post on thekeyplay.com, relentlessly
Milestone 3: Publish
If you are truly getting paid to post on TKP, well done, TechHokie13.
That would be awesome, but alas, no. I'm currently looking at some cardiac action potential stuff which involves a whole lot of MatLab and Excel, and much copying and pasting in between. I hop over to TKP every once in a while to keep myself sane.
Little known fact: TKP was in the bidding for naming rights for the basketball court, but, when Joe ran the numbers and submitted his bid, Whit told him it was only enough to get the name on a urinal. Joe wisely declined.
The Key Pisser.
Opportunity missed! "Donated on behalf of UVA" would have looked perfect on a little placard on that urinal...
They could have put a little plastic Cavman in there for you to "aim" at.
Still more urinals sponsored by TKP in Cassell than fans at loluva's spring game.
Missed a good marketing opportunity: Have the urinal cake target be a plastic ring with the website URL in Bold letters with an outline "T K PEE" target. Act like that wouldn't drive traffic.
I doubt this deal precludes that. If someone wants to market a urinal cake, go for it.
No worries. A few snake bite victims and that 500 grand is covered.
So I guess the Virginia Tech Hooptie Ride Court did not have enough seed money?
Not a fan of the logo... HOWEVER, I am a huge fan of 0.5 million dollars a year!
I think it's OK, but I would have tried to get "Carilion" in a VT color.
Then again, there's a half million dollars a year that makes that pretty negotiable.
I mean, that is their official logo (http://www.vtc.vt.edu) and the blue does appear to be one of the University's official secondary colors (http://www.branding.unirel.vt.edu/brand-expression/colors-typography.html).
Hey, maybe we just finally realized that all teams that tend to be good at basketball have blue on their court, so why not try it ourselves?
Excellent point that I didn't really consider.
As a logo, I don't mind it. Since it's the only blue on the court, it certainly stands out.
I'm sure it will look great!
I would have preferred this, but the money sounds good.
with enough Hardee's coupons I think we can come to an agreement...
What's sad is that it probably took me 5 times longer to throw my shittiness together. Thanks for the upgrade.
Yawning now because tomorrow I am headed to Ca-nan-a-da to fish for musky! I will send a pic! Labor Day is coming!
What lake you headed to? We fished Meggisi in June and struggled a bit but had a good time. Lost a couple of monsters. Good luck!
Holy alliteration, Batman!
This. Whit is awesome.
On another note I saw a person on Linkedin who was all anti-corporate sponsorship bashing this. Because I'm sure he has a half a mil just waiting around to be spent. I don't know how this is not a good thing.
Especially since we already have a public-private partnership with Carilion for the med school and Research Institute. This is just reaffirming our partnership and getting some money out of that deal. Total win-win, I think. Building relationships between academia and corporate entities is the way things are moving, anyway. Best for VT to be on the leading edge of (or at least keeping up with) the trend.
I mean, if Little John can sponsor a basketball arena by HIMSELF, why can't a corporate entity, amirite
I don't see a down side to this.
Universities have corporate relationships that pay for research and support academic programs. This is our modern world. If we can get corporate support for athletics as well, that's truly phenomenal.
It's part of being a leading university these days.
I'm typically against corporate sponsorship in college athletics, but given that it's a relatively subtle sponsorship, and that Carilion Clinic a both a research partner and a corporation that fights for a good cause, I'm 100% ok with it.
So, I'll be an outlier here.
I'm not a fan of name changes for corporate sponsors, in any level of sports. To me, I think the name change to stadiums and the like cheapen the venues. I get it, of course, that money and donation is needed, but I think that they're already going to have their name plastered on all the programs, on walls, and probably mentioned during broadcasts.
I'm curious how people would feel if they made it Worsham-Carillion field at Lane Stadium.
I think, to me, it just resonates a purchased honor, not an earned one.
In a sense, I agree, but there really isn't much of a separation of "purchased" and "earned" honors. Naming rights to campus structures and spaces cost serious money, so while the names of dorms, academic buildings, etc. have rightfully gone to important people in University history, many (all?) have been named because of big-time cash donations, as well.
Well, it's one thing to simply buy naming rights. It's another to have a partnership, like VT and Cariilion have for the medical school that VT is rolling out and starting. This is slightly different, but not much differnt than Papa Johns Stadium at Louisville. If they bought the name at a school they weren't associate with, sure it's odd. But at least there is a huge partnership with the VTC School of Medicine.
VTC link
I also think there's a huge distinction between branding the playing surface and branding the building.
I'm totally cool with selling off the naming rights to the court, but I prefer they leave Cassell and Lane un-sponsored.
Your point is a good one, but at the end of the day, big-time athletics cost big-time money.
If you don't want to pay for your uniforms, you have to accept a little swoosh mark on them. If you want nice facilities, you may need to do some co-branding.
Sharing the name of the playing surface is an optimal way to handle it, without re-naming the overall venue.
I thought Worsham Field was named after a big donor?
It is. As is Lane and Cassell too I think. Shoot, all but a handful of buildings on campus (Torg, PY and a couple others I can't remember off the top of my head) are named after people who ponied up some cash. Side note: how we have a New Hall West but not a Librescu Hall in my mind is just plain wrong.
Hey @Sandsman, check this out
The new Cadet Dorms are also getting name changes for some deep pocket alumni, along with losing Thomas and Monteith permanently eventually which blows.
I do think there's a difference between a donor who says "I love this school so much I want to support it" and a corporation who says "I think VT's facilities are a great opportunity to advertise my business."
There is, but who is in a position to make that assessment? It may also be that the corporation is run by someone who loves and wants to support the school.
Wes Worsham. Owner of a fire protection company that I've had the good fortune to do business with, and I've had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Worsham. Super nice guy.
Out of curiosity, is his fire protection company named after him? As in something like "Worsham Fire Protection"?
Neato, good for all involved.
This better mean that we have the best injury response team at Cassell at all times, unlike how the Carrier Dome is not air conditioned.
Don't worry, we've got Big Ass Fans.
Hopefully the partnership is better than their healthcare.
Here is what the court looks like.
Also, here is an update on the media/ADA area.
It looks pretty darned good.
It will look even better with next year's squad out there.
The new handicap section wall would be a great spot to put more ads. Or hopefully, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Would it not make more sense to reverse the orientation of both logos to make them easier to see on TV? Just going by the picture (that doesn't seem far removed from a normal TV angle), I can't even read the far logo that is right-side-up, but the upside-down near logo is readable. Seems like some marketing genius didn't think this one through.
Is that an SEC recruit?
Bazinga