PDF to the agreement is linked in the article:
I know nobody saw this coming out about Mr. Richardson but what a poor deal for the university. Name on the stadium and field for lifetime of the facility you could’ve at least asked for the money lump sum not to mention no protection of the university what so ever.
So short sighted but what else do you expect given who negotiated the deal on our end.
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So hindsight is 20/20. You’re right . NO ONE saw this coming.
I was curious what other college football stadium naming rights agreements looked like, and it was difficult to Google, but I found this one for Erie Community College. The difference is striking.
Also of note in the 7. DEFAULT AND TERMINATION section: “v. Other Conduct Giving Rise to Termination. Either party engaging in any conduct or action that will cause material injury to the other party’s image, reputation or ability to carry on its purpose.”
Seems like that would be a no-brainer for this type of agreement. 
I don’t care about not putting in the clause about protecting the university, as others have mentioned no one would have seen this coming (they should have at least put it in the contract since it is their job). However, the part about perpetuity even if they expand the stadium is garbage. We have the smallest stadium in FBS, smaller than many in FCS. To prevent the school from courting future donors for expansion is malpractice.
I have a feeling that JR would be willing to negotiate a solution to this that would be win-win for him and the U.
They better do it quick before his grandson is a coach somewhere else. The thing about people or entities in a strong contract position is that they are rarely willing to renegotiate. An agreement with no escape clause due to reason x, y, or z, and with no end date is the stuff of amateurs. That would have been ok if there was an end date, but to have it for the life of the stadium when the stadium is brand new is really crazy.
This lack of due diligence reflected in the contract goes to show just how desperate Judy was to raise money. We didn’t have any other suitors coming close to $10M for naming rights (if any viable offers at all), so she overreacted by granting a lifetime guarantee. Even then, I thought $10M for lifetime rights + having the same guy’s name on the field was abnormal - but we were a startup, so I could look past it.
To not have a form of morality clause, or any other semblance of protection in this contract was a failure on our part. I guarantee it was never considered. Probably used some student getting that coveted Law Certificate through our partnership w/ the defunct Charlotte School of Law.
I would imaging when someone is talking that much money (even over time) there was a huge interest during negotiations to incourage more giving in excess of the contract amount in the future. Not an excuse, just thinking there were lots of things to consider. Remember this is the same legal team for the same man who made sure his statue was “contractually obligated” to stay.
clt says we should do nothing as long as the checks keep coming in
I gotta say, nobody saw this coming, but after Penn State’s debacle you would think legal jargon would be put in place for just about everyone.
We all thought a morality clause would be common place. Derp.
It’s not uncommon for big donors to spread their money over time so they can reflect it on their taxes each year… I agree the legal language should have been better
David Scott chimes in on the topic:
What amazes me is that we only received $10M for the life of the stadium. You can tell that our goals were very low and we did not ever expect to grow our program into anything to be proud and support.
Poorly structured agreement on our end from every angle.
It was mentioned in the SB that the agreement reads like 10M total is what we got from big cat (not 12.5M like I assumed from mccoll field and then stadium). SAD
North Texas did a 20 year $1 million per year deal for their stadium. Some people just suck at their jobs.
This one has been discussed before, but Colorado State got $37.7 million over 15 years for their new stadium…