LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Louisville's largest credit union will become the naming-rights sponsor of Cardinal Stadium nearly five years after the University of Louisville canceled its deal with Papa Johns International founder John Schnatter.
The stadium is now known as L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium, or L&N Stadium, for which the credit union will pay U of L's athletics department $41.3 million over 20 years, according to an agreement approved by U of L's board of trustees at a special meeting Monday.
L&N is already one of the biggest corporate sponsors of U of L athletics. It holds the naming rights to U of L's volleyball arena, a 2019 deal that was extended and incorporated as part of the stadium deal. L&N was also the primary donor to Denny Crum Hall, a new athletics dormitory named for the Hall of Fame basketball coach.
A few photos from before today's news conference ... pic.twitter.com/SDOvrPGDHl
— Eric Crawford (@ericcrawford) January 30, 2023
The credit union is "thrilled and honored" to deepen its ties with the athletics program, L&N CEO Chris Brown said in a prepared statement.
“We are proud to have the L&N name on the stadium as a visible sign of our commitment to the Louisville community and the University," he said. "L&N has been a long-standing partner with the University and, ironically, the credit union had its start on the same site as the stadium in 1954. This long-term commitment strengthens our relationship into the future. We are aligned with (U of L athletics director) Josh Heird’s vision and it’s our honor to be associated with a great program.”
L&N will owe annual payments beginning this year at $1.7 million, with each payment growing by 2% annually until reaching about $2.5 million in 2042.
U of L athletics director Josh Heird said Monday that he was relieved to finally arrive at a new sponsorship deal for the stadium, which was among his top priorities when he took over in December 2021.
"I didn't think it was going to take a year. I was hopeful we could do it quicker than that. I don't know why I was. I think that was wishful thinking, considering that we'd gone about four years without the name," Heird said.
Nearly five years since break with Schnatter
The 60,000-seat facility on Floyd Street had been called Papa John's Cardinal Stadium until July 2018, when then-U of L President Neeli Bendapudi decided to remove the reference to Schnatter and his company following Schnatter's admitted use of a racial slur during a private conference call.
Though he apologized at the time for uttering the racial language "regardless of the context," Schnatter maintains that his comment was misinterpreted and was actually a statement against racism.
In 2019, U of L agreed to pay Schnatter $9.5 million over five years to relinquish his naming rights, which were contracted through 2040.
Built in the 1990s, the stadium was partially financed with $20 million from Schnatter and his former company – $14 million in personal gifts and $6 million from Papa John's, according to agreements and extensions previously obtained by WDRB.
The naming privilege was personally held by Schnatter, and the contract lacked a "morals clause" that would have made it easy for U of L to revoke in the case Schnatter came into disrepute. The L&N agreement includes such a clause, which applies to both parties.
Then-U of L athletics director Vince Tyra said in 2019 that the university decided to buy Schnatter out because the rights were likely worth more than "a couple million dollars a year." But Tyra's plan to have a new naming rights sponsor by the 2020 football season did not pan out amid the pandemic.
More than money
Louisville athletics director Josh Heird speaks at the dedication of Denny Crum Hall, which was made possible by a gift from L&N Federal Credit Union.
Heird said last July that money would not be the only consideration in finding a new stadium sponsor.
"It's got to be the right fit," Heird said. "We don't want somebody to just say, hey, let's slap our name up on this stadium. I would tell you that stadium means too much to us to just give it to, you know, whoever might want it. Let's make sure that we create a comprehensive partnership."
Heird said last year that the university used a third party to identify candidates, and had discussions with several. In April 2022, he said he'd like to see a sponsor that could afford opportunities for U of L students, perhaps one that would want its employees to be able to use the university.
But the main benefit of such deals is money. With football revenues having lagged and men's basketball receipts suffering through the worst season in U of L's modern history, the school can use the financial boost.
At first, L&N's sponsorship will help defray the cost of buying Schnatter out of the previous deal. At a news conference Monday, Heird confirmed that Schnatter's last payment under the 2019 agreement will be about $2 million due in the new U of L fiscal year starting in July.
U of L's athletics association has a $107 million annual budget.
"It's a really big impact. And, obviously, we haven't earmarked it, but I can tell you, college athletics has a real challenge in keeping up with, I kind of call them, unfunded mandates," Heird said.
He added that during the pandemic, "attendance just dropped off a cliff" for college football and basketball games.
"Anywhere in the country, it's not just going (immediately) back up ... it's an incline, and like I said, we've got to make the right decisions to get us back to where we were and I think we're doing that."
L&N one of the nation’s credit unions
The stadium deal signals the growing ambitions of a financial institution established in 1954 to serve the L&N Railroad workers in Louisville.
With 104,000 members and $1.8 billion in assets at the end of 2021, L&N Federal Credit Union ranked in the top 5% of U.S. credit unions by assets, according to its 2022 annual report.
Credit unions are essentially nonprofit banks. They provide the same services as banks, but their profits are distributed back to their customers, or members, instead of to shareholders. In 2021, L&N paid $9.3 million in dividends to its members.
While it began as a cooperative among railroad workers, L&N is now open to most anyone who wants to establish an account. Membership is for anyone who "lives, works, worships, attend schools or belongs to any legal entity," in the counties comprising the Louisville-Southern Indiana metro area or the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky area as well as five counties in southeast Kentucky.
