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TradeEdge Exchange:Pitbull Stadium is the new home of FIU football. The artist has bought the naming rights
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Date:2025-04-07 08:22:04
Welcome to Pitbull Stadium,TradeEdge Exchange the home of your FIU Panthers.
Florida International announced what could end up as a 10-year agreement on Tuesday with international recording artist, Grammy winner and entrepreneur Armando Christian Pérez — the Miami native better known as Pitbull — to put his name on their on-campus stadium.
Pérez will pay $1.2 million annually for the next five years, the university said, for the naming rights. He will have an option in August 2029 to extend the deal for another five years and continue the rebranding.
“Yes, we’re going to create history in Pitbull Stadium,” Pérez said during a news conference in Miami. “This isn’t just an announcement. This is a movement. This is truly history in the making.”
FIU said it is the first agreement where an artist possesses the naming rights to a stadium. Pérez will also be involved with FIU’s efforts in the name, image and likeness space, athletic director Scott Carr said.
“This is a historic day for FIU athletics to uniquely partner with a world-renowned artist and amazing person who truly values relationships and his community,” Carr said. “Armando’s financial support is program-changing, but him providing a microphone to amplify FIU will be even more beneficial to growing our brand.”
As part of the deal, Pérez gets use of the stadium for 10 days each year rent-free, with some tickets to those events to be set aside for FIU students. A vodka brand he owns will be a preferred brand at the stadium going forward, he will receive use of two suites and 20 VIP parking passes for FIU football home games, and he’s being asked to create an “FIU Anthem” to be played at the school’s athletic contests.
“It’s a true blessing, a true honor,” Pérez said. “Let’s make history.”
Pitbull — who also goes by “Mr. 305,” a nod to Miami’s area code — kicked off his music career in the South Florida rap scene around 2004, eventually becoming one of the world’s most recognized artists.
“Pitbull’s career trajectory mirrors FIU’s ascent as one of the nation’s top public research universities,” FIU President Kenneth A. Jessell said. “Like FIU, he started out very 305 and became worldwide.”
Pérez has been a longtime proponent of supporting education in South Florida. FIU said he founded the first SLAM! (Sports Leadership, Arts, and Management) tuition-free public charter school in Miami in 2012.
“This is about uniting everybody,” he said. “This is about bringing everybody together. ... Hard work is what pays off. They tell me, ‘You so lucky.’ Well, the harder I work, the luckier I get.”
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