LEXINGTON, Ky. — On Monday, the University of Kentucky announced a comprehensive partnership deal with JMI Sports and Kroger. As part of that deal, Commonwealth Stadium, which was the name of the football stadium for 44 years, would be changed to Kroger Field.
UK becomes the first school in the Southeastern Conference to rename its football stadium after a corporate partner. Athletic director Mitch Barnhart said the university has tried to reach a deal with a corporate sponsor for quite some time.
"It’s been a little over two years that this has been in conversation," Barnhart said. "The process was important for us to be able to have funding for the capital projects we have in place. The overarching piece in a lot of things we do is mandated by the university and the president and the board of trustees. We’re self-sustaining. We generate our own way.
"So the opportunity to work with a multimedia rights partner like JMI and then to have the opportunity to change the financial structure a little bit, that allows us to do capital funding is really, really important."
Barnhart knew there would be a portion of the fan base that wouldn't be happy with the change from Commonwealth Stadium to Kroger Field. However, said the change allows more flexibility within the athletic department.
"I absolutely respect our fan base," Barnhart said. "I’ve been here 15 years. I think that shows I have great respect for our fans. I love our fans. We want to make sure that we’re always listening, but at the end of the day, I’ve still got to put the enterprise of making sure that our young people have the best opportunity to work in the SEC."
Barnhart then posed a question to UK's fans.
"If I said to our fans, what’s most important: how we get there in terms of our names and things like that, or is it more important we compete well and have really quality student athletes?" Barnhart said. "I think they’d all say ‘let’s go do something that’s best for our student athletes and give us the best chance we can to compete.’ This is one component. It’s not the only component, but it is one component of that. Again, the landscape continues to change in what we do.”
Barnhart said the athletic department will continue to revamp and remold the football program.
"I don't think we're done," Barnhart said. "We will continue to do things that will give us the best chance to invest in our program. This is an interesting investment too as it relates to the nutrition of our student-athletes. We’ve got our training tables we go into and Kroger is going to pour into that. That’s really helpful to us. It’s a really unique way we get to do that."
