Rutgers Sells Stadium Naming Rights to High Point Solutions

Since 1938, Rutgers football has played its home games at Rutgers Stadium. While the venue won’t change, the name of it will.

Rutgers Stadium was officially renamed High Point Solutions Stadium on June 21 as Rutgers University and the Sparta based company reached a 10 year, $6.5 million deal. Rutgers became the 11th school in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) to sell its naming rights.

 “We were looking for a very specific kind of fit,” Athletic Director Tim Pernetti said of the decision. “We were looking for good people, we were looking for a New Jersey company, we were looking with the same core values that our football program has and today we found in High Point Solutions that group.”

The annual $650,000 is a revenue boost that will benefit the football program, which completed a $102 million stadium expansion in 2008-2009. But that’s not the only advantage to the University.

“If there is business at this campus in the realm of what High Point Solution is in IT infrastructure, I’m pretty sure they intend to compete for it and I’m pretty sure they’re going to win some of that business,” Pernetti said. “And in the process, I think they’re going to make Rutgers a much more productive and innovative place.”

Co-founded in July of 1996 by brothers Mike and Tom Mendiburu, High Point Solutions, Inc. has been recognition as a leader in information technology and service sectors. In an ever-changing technological world, an affiliation with the stadium may benefit Rutgers as a whole.

“First off we try to understand what the University’s goals are from an organization where they’re headed and then we step back and look at technology,“ Mike Mendiburu said. “We say ‘what kind of technology can we leverage to help them reach their goals, what kind of creative solutions can we deploy and develop to aid in that end?’”

Pernetti acknowleged that traditionalists of college athletics may not be happy about giving up the name of the stadium despite the fiscal gain.  

Those are the kind of fans that make college athletics as great as they are and they are the program's best supporters, he said. Given that, Pernetti had stipulations when picking a buyer, and it had nothing to do with bidding price.

“We were trying to find somebody and find a partner that reflected the same things that the words Rutgers Stadium reflect,” Pernetti said. “And the bottom line is this: the product on the field will be as memorable as anything gets done or put on the stadium.“

Head coach Greg Schiano couldn’t be happier with the choice. Like Pernetti, Schiano wanted a partner that reflects the values of the program he’s built.

“You listen to these guys [the Mendiburu brothers] talk, it sounds very familiar,” Schiano said. “[And when] you look into their background, they walk the talk.”

The details of changes around the stadium need to be ironed out, but High Point Solutions will appear be on the field, the back of the scoreboard and integrated in other ways around the stadium according to Pernetti.

One point however has been decided: Nothing will be too over the top.

“We agreed on one thing early on,” Pernetti said. “We want it to be classy and they want it to be classy.”

What do you think about Rutgers Stadium's new name?