Proposed $70M Columbia Bank Deal for UW Stadium Tops Past Venue Deals

Husky Stadium is heading toward a $70 million renaming agreement that easily outpaces what the University of Washington previously collected for both of its premier athletic venues combined.

Under a proposed 10-year contract pending approval from the university’s Board of Regents, Columbia Bank will pay $70 million to rename the football home in 2027, Matt Fortuna of Sports Business Journal reported. The agreement is the largest football stadium naming rights deal in college sports history, transforming the facility into Columbia Bank Stadium while making the Tacoma-based bank a signature partner of the university.

The deal dwarfs the financial baseline set back in 2015. Starting that year, Alaska Airlines held the naming rights to both the football stadium and the basketball arena under a single 10-year, $42 million contract.

Husky Stadium to be named Columbia Bank Stadium in record $70M deal for UW — KOMO News

By splitting the inventory and selling the venues separately, Washington has generated a higher return. In March, the university renewed with Alaska Airlines for the basketball arena only on a 10-year, $28.4 million agreement. Combined with the incoming football contract, the two properties will pull in about $98.4 million over the decade, more than double the shared 2015 package.

Evaluated on a yearly basis, the financial acceleration becomes even sharper. The 2015 package came to about $4.2 million a year for both buildings. Combined, the pair of new agreements generates roughly $9.84 million annually—about 2.3 times the previous rate—consisting of $7 million from football alongside approximately $2.84 million contributed by the arena.

Husky Stadium renamed to Columbia Bank Stadium in 2027 — 4 News Now

Valued at $28.4M across 10 years, Alaska Airlines’ standalone extension for the arena represents roughly two-thirds of the $42M total it previously invested in both properties under their 2015 decade-long agreement.

One Roof Sports & Entertainment and Tod Leiweke of the Kraken collaborated with the educational institution to assist in securing the agreement.

Washington, D.C.’s RFK Stadium opened on Oct. 1, 1961, carried the name District of Columbia Stadium from 1961 to 1969, closed on Sept. 15, 2019 and was demolished between 2023 and 2026. A 10-year naming sponsorship would have spanned under 20% of the facility’s active operational history spanning those 58 active years.

For athletic departments evaluating expiring contracts, the financial arithmetic demonstrated in Seattle provides a clear benchmark. Property owners now face a strategic choice between packaging multiple venues to secure a single committed sponsor or testing the open market independently to capture peak valuations for individual facilities.