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Pitbull Stadium is Real. Pitbull Stadium is Coming.
It doesn’t happen often, but this week, I fell into some news.
I was working on a future article for the Sandwich, when I came across the team Miami, FC. The squad, (not to be confused with the Lionel Messi-featuring team Inter Miami), is a team that plays in USL Pro - the third division in the American Soccer Pyramid. And so, when I was looking at their Wikipedia page, I was absolutely shocked to see that they were playing in “Pitbull Stadium.” I didn’t pay it any mind, maybe they share the venue with a college team called the Pitbulls. But no dear reader, just six hours prior to my discovery, the news had broke that the artist Pitbull had invested $6 million dollars over the next five years to call the stadium on the grounds of Florida International University, “Pitbull Stadium.”
Nope, I’m not making this up.
FIU, home of The Panthers of all things, is going to give ol’ Armando a parade after this one. In exchange for the naming rights, Pitbull is going to use the stadium for up to 10 nights a year, will return to campus for at least one fundraiser a year, and will put on artists that are Pitbull-affiliated to perform there. Full report here.
Here’s the kicker, during the agreement period, Mr. Worldwide will be referred to as the “Official Entrepreneur of FIU Athletics.” This is the part that tickles me, because how many unofficial FIU Athletics entrepreneurs are walking the streets? Like, I understand if a beer company wants to be the "official” beer of a sports team because they want you to keep it top of mind when you’re going to the bar. But in what universe am I going to impress my friends with, “Did you know that Mr. 305 is THEE OFFICIAL something something FIU?”
Good on him, though. He didn’t have to give back and he most certainly could’ve put that money into something further away from his home base. The very concept of “giving back” may be fluid, but you can’t argue that money talks. And if the naming rights for a building were up for sale, I guess I’d rather it go to a person (and not an individual from like hundreds of years ago), rather than a corporation at the collegiate level.
Aight, now let me tell you about the racing team Pitbull co-owns….