Two years ago, Barstool Sports made a bid to win the naming rights to the Buffalo Bills’ stadium. In the end, the digital sports brand lost out to Highmark Health Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York, but the team announced in March that a new stadium is on the way. That could pave the way for Dave Portnoy and company to make another bid.
Highmark has a deal to keep naming rights on the stadium through 2025. The company also has first right of refusal on the next deal, but with the new stadium not set to open until at least 2026, that leaves the door wide open. A spokeswoman for Highmark told Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports that no deal regarding the current stadium’s naming rights will carry over to the new one.
Dave Portnoy said on Twitter that he was “very serious” about Barstool bidding for the naming rights to the stadium in August of 2020. He has not commented about any intentions Barstool would have for the new stadium. With sports betting legal in New York State, it could be argued that a naming rights deal for a stadium in the state makes more sense now for Barstool and parent company Penn National Gaming than it did in 2020.
Barstool, Highmark, or any other company that may be interested in putting their name on the new home of the Buffalo Bills are probably doing some PR math right now. The plan for the new stadium has been met with some resistance from the public as the $1.4 billion stadium plan is set to receive more than half of its funding from the public.
If the NFL bristles at Barstool, remember that in 2020, a bidet manufacturer called TUSHY also wanted to bid on the naming rights to the stadium. The company’s founder, Miki Agrawal, told McCarthy that she intends to bid again.
“We really think it would make a statement: ‘TUSHY Stadium’ with an annual ‘Toilet Bowl’ event. It would be so much fun,” Agrawal said. “Who wouldn’t want to go to an event called the Toilet Bowl? We’d get comedians there and do a fun comedy show and halftime.”
New Era pulled out of its naming rights deal with the stadium. That is what created the opening in 2020. At that time, Highmark won the naming rights over the next ten years at a cost of $5 million per year.
