Illinois State University will receive $3.1 million over the next decade for naming rights to Redbird Arena. It's now known as CEFCU Arena.
In this interview on WGLT's Sound Ideas, ISU athletics director Kyle Brennan explains how the deal will benefit Redbird athletics.
KB: I think what it represents is progress for all of us. When I got to Illinois State, we were charged with trying to not only increase revenue that we have, but to bring in new sources of revenue. For us, this is a big moment to get a naming rights deal. It's not commonly done at the FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) level. So, for us to get that infusion of revenue and support for our student-athletes across the board is just a very exciting moment for us.
Where will that 3.1 million go?
KB: It's going to our student-athlete experience. They have a lot of different needs that they have, whether it's equipment, travel, nutrition, mental health, those kinds of things to support the student-athlete experience and make it a place that we can recruit to. And then also, when the student-athletes get here, they have great support.
Athletics is all about tradition, and people like to hold onto tradition. Any pushback from people who say, ‘I'm still going to call it Redbird Arena.’
KB: I've definitely heard that and I understand the feeling. I'm a Redbird. And I get that, but, you know, we're in a new era, and this is still a way for us to enhance and get better as Redbirds and so, some fans will still call it Redbird Arena. But on top of the building, you'll see CEFCU and everything that goes out in print will be CEFCU which will satisfy our partner and so we're excited about it.
What's next? A deal for Hancock Stadium? Duffy Bass Field?
KB: Not Duffy Bass, but we're looking always at Hancock. That’s definitely something I've talked about before. We'll probably turn our focus there next and see what we can come up with because it's a great way to provide a source of revenue to our kids.
We've got to catch up right now. We have Name, Image and Likeness. We’ve got to find ways to attract student-athletes to come here. We can win the Missouri Valley and give a lot of pride to this institution.
A new collective ISU saw develop over the past couple of months. What has (Empower) the Nest done so farin bringing those opportunities for student-athletes?
KB: It's just been awesome. We have 131 deals that have been done in the last 30 days. We've got student-athletes signing up constantly, ranging from haircuts, to free sandwiches to actual good cash payments. We've got a variety of deals. The great thing, I think, that we're doing right now is pairing student-athletes with the right company.
Where do you feel ISU is on the spectrum since everyone is doing this?
KB: I think in the Missouri Valley Conference, we're number one, and that's where we want to stay. Each level has a different level of support and opportunity. But for us at our level, I think we're the top and the Missouri Valley; we were the first to do a collective for every single student-athlete, not just the men, and I feel really proud about the numbers that we brought in and the commitment we've made to have with staffing.
ISU is reopening Horton Field House to basketball for the first time in over three decades on Dec. 10 (for a game against SIU-Edwardsville). How are you going to be able to pull that off?
KB: Through a lot of hard work. It’s not as easy as it sounds to go to an old building and retrofit with all the technology that's come out since. But we've got some dedicated people on campus and in our department that are going to make it happen.
Met with Doug Collins about it. And of course, he mentioned it this morning (at the ISU board of trustees meeting), how excited he is to come back for the event. I just got the idea from meeting with a lot of our fans when I got here, and they just talked about Horton. They're remembering great games against UNLV and Doug Collins, and I thought, man, if there's a way to bring this back, we can re-energize some of our people who have, you know, been around for a long time. They deserve that. I called Doug Collins and said do you want to do and he said ‘Yes, tomorrow. Can we do it tomorrow?’ That kind of thing. So it was great.
What’s capacity and will you sell it out?
KB: We're going to sell it out. I'm not worried about that. We've got so many tickets requests right now, it's crazy. I think right now our ticket number that we're allotting out to the public is 3,500. Not what it sat back in the day because we can't get the biggest bleachers behind those baskets that they used to get. But we're definitely going to have the students behind the baskets in bleachers, it just won't be stretching up to the ceiling like it used to be.
Will this be a one-time thing? Or do you expect this to be an annual thing?
KB: If it goes well, which I expect it to, it'd be an annual thing and I don't want to jinx it but I would love it. I talked to the (athletic director) of (Illinois) Wesleyan. If we could get a deal where we play Wesleyan in there, I think that'd be a lot of fun for this whole community.
