Dealmaker: Clinching the $45 Million Snapdragon Stadium Agreement
Even though she just helped clinch a $45 million deal that’s one of the most lucrative college stadium naming rights agreements in the country, Jennifer Bower (’03) has yet to celebrate. San Diego State University’s Snapdragon Stadium opens in nine months and another eight to 10 major sponsorships in various stages of negotiation remain to be signed.
Vice President of Stadium Partnerships Jennifer Bower ('03) works to negotiate naming rights agreements at SDSU's newly named Snapdragon Stadium. (photo courtesy Jennifer Bower)
It’s Bower’s job to close those deals. As vice president of stadium partnerships with Legends, the consulting group hired along with JMI Sports to help market and sell the venue, her role is connecting corporate entities to the new stadium through naming rights and founding partnerships.
Before the Snapdragon deal was made public in Dec. 2021, Bower had already shepherded an $8.5 million agreement with the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation and Sycuan Casino Resort to become SDSU’s inaugural Founding Partner for the new stadium. As announced at a Nov. 16, 2021, news conference at the construction site, both The Piers location and the Founders Club will bear the Sycuan name.
Right now, Bower, who competed as a middle-distance runner for the SDSU cross-country and track-and-field teams as a student, is as busy as ever. Having been in her current position for more than two years, she admits to feeling some pressure as the stadium opening draws nearer.
“It’s kind of a dead sprint to the finish line,” she said. “It’s almost like a track meet, actually, but luckily we middle-distance runners have a strong kick.”
Jennifer Bower running for SDSU in the 800m event at the 2003 Mountain West Conference Track and Field Championship meet. (photo courtesy Jennifer Bower)
FINDING HER NICHE
As both a San Diego State alumna and a former athlete, Bower is as invested as can be in the team that negotiated the naming rights agreement. Whether it was on a track or now, during a high-level negotiation, she has always brought her best effort on behalf of SDSU.
After graduation, Bower, a native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, began weighing options afforded by the business management degree she had earned. “I was an athlete and I wanted to work in sports, but I had no clue what I wanted to do,” she said during a recent interview.
Having distinguished herself in the classroom as well as on the track, Bower soon was offered three choices by the San Diego Chargers organization: a position in community relations, public relations, or sponsorship. “I didn’t even know what sponsorship entailed,” she said.
She was asked if she liked talking to people, would enjoy each day being different, and whether she wanted to be in revenue generation. Answering “yes” to each question, “I just kind of fell into (sponsorship),” Bower said.
After spending a decade with the Chargers and another two years with Fox Sports College Properties selling sponsorships for the Aztecs, Bower joined Legends where her years of relationship-building throughout the region enabled her to quickly find a niche. Her connections plus her knack for forthright-yet-comfortable conversation would serve her well during negotiations for the largest series of sponsorships in the university’s history.
A BIG DEAL
Just how big is the Snapdragon Stadium deal? One expert calls it “massive.”
Sports Management Associate Professor Terry Eddy, Ph.D., at the University of Windsor in Ontario researches sport sponsorship and marketing. His doctoral dissertation focused on college sports naming rights. His work has been published in several academic journals and he serves on the editorial review board for Sport Marketing Quarterly, Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, and Case Studies in Sport Management.
University of Windsor Sports Management Associate Professor Terry Eddy, Ph.D., says the $45 million Snapdragon Stadium naming rights deal between SDSU and Qualcomm might rank in the nation’s top three college stadium agreements in terms of payouts. (photo courtesy Terry Eddy)
Eddy is coauthor of “Plains State University’s Naming Rights Dilemma,” a case study in which the reader plays the role of an NCAA Division I athletics director and is challenged to consider the issue of selling the corporate naming rights to the department's premier on-campus sports venue. Currently, he is coauthoring a new book on naming rights based on his latest research.
The more Professor Eddy learns about the $45 million Snapdragon payout over 15 years, the more impressed he is by the agreement. “The question everyone always wants to know is did we give it away,” he said during a recent telephone interview. “For a non-Power Five school, in the context of just a stadium naming rights deal, I would say SDSU hit it out of the park.”
Eddy emphasizes that comparisons between stadium naming rights agreements are complicated by many factors, like whether the playing field is named separately or whether proximal development is included. Still, he says, the Snapdragon Stadium deal might rank in the nation’s top three college stadium agreements in terms of payouts.
Likewise, the “fit” between a brand and a sports property can be tricky to identify. Eddy says more and more, researchers are analyzing what he calls the “authenticity” of naming rights partnerships as measured by the benefit to both sides.
“It’s about win – win relationships between the sport property and brands,” he said. “It seems SDSU is doing well so far to have something of value for all of these different partners they are bringing in.
“It’s a hard thing to define, but I think there is an authentic fit between SDSU and Qualcomm using their Snapdragon sub-brand.”
STRATEGY AND RESEARCH
Major sponsorships don’t just happen, they are the products of strategy, research and tenacity. The new stadium is no exception. Even before its construction began, the university, Bower and the Legends/JMI team were working to identify the regional brands most likely to be good partners for naming purposes.
Bower with (l-r) Executive Associate Athletic Director Derek Grice and JMI Sports Sponsorship Sales Vice President Duke Little. (photo courtesy Jennifer Bower)
“At the beginning, we organized possible partners into categories,” Bower said. “We went to the CEO and CMO (chief marketing officer) of each potential sponsor to make sure they were aware about (what was then) Aztec Stadium.”
Although the COVID-19 pandemic created hesitation early on among some organizations, a few brands emerged as potential stadium sponsors. According to Bower, the team held discussions with Qualcomm early on, but a meeting between JMI Sports CEO Erik Judson and Qualcomm Senior Vice President and CMO Don McGuire kickstarted subsequent conversations of heightened substance.
Known for its Snapdragon mobile platforms, the technology giant could envision itself in a long-term partnership with SDSU. “They recruit from San Diego State, it’s in their back yard, and there is potential integration on campus and some other components of the project,” Bower said, “so for Qualcomm it made a lot of sense.”
PARTNERING WITH A POWERHOUSE
Bower estimates the Snapdragon Stadium naming rights deal came together over the course of almost four months from initial discussions to locking down signatures and announcing the agreement. In announcing the deal, Qualcomm Incorporated President and CEO Cristiano Amon described the naming agreement as “just the first phase of an expansive relationship between Qualcomm Technologies and San Diego State University as we look to support their broad digital transformation that will include the stadium, the upcoming innovation district, and smart campus enhancements across their campuses.”
From an SDSU perspective, “having a powerhouse brand like Qualcomm associated with us only helps us seeking other partnerships with brands locally, nationally and internationally,” Bower said.
That is something SDSU Athletics Director John David Wicker appreciates. He cites Bower’s experience, knowledge, and regional connections as important elements of the university’s recent naming rights successes.
JD Wicker at the Dec. 6, 2021, Snapdragon Stadium naming announcement. (photo courtesy Orlando Ramirez/San Diego State)
“Jen values bringing all constituents to the table to ensure the best value is derived from any agreement,” Wicker said. “She did a great job collaborating with our internal team and the staff at Qualcomm to finalize a deal that benefits all involved.”
EYES ON THE PRIZE
On any given day, Bower is juggling several different negotiations at once, and each negotiation has multiple moving parts. Stress comes with the territory.
“There’s a lot of twists and turns and ups and downs and kind of playing every scenario in your head, like, ‘Is this going to happen?’
“Someone just doesn’t say, ‘I’m going to give you $45 million’ and you say, ‘Great! Let’s sign off.’ So, yeah, there’s definitely a lot of sleepless nights. Having two little kids, I think I’m trained to not sleep, but this was like a third child.”
Bower credits her student-athlete experience with helping her stay grounded. She says her athletic training still comes into play during each negotiation.
“You train, you rehearse, you do everything you can to be prepared for the big day. We waited, we were patient, all those things that being a student-athlete had helped me with: staying levelheaded and keeping my eyes on the prize just knowing that if you put in the hard work, it all comes together.
“When you are a track athlete especially, you have big goals and big ambitions and until someone tells you no, you just keep fighting for it. That’s kind of what happened in this case.”
WHAT’S IN A NAME
If there is one key to forging a successful agreement, Bower believes, it’s paying close attention to what the other side in the negotiation is saying. “It’s listening to what the brand wants and being solution-oriented,” she said.
Bower (third from left) with team members Global Partnerships Associate Tatijana Bowman, Stadium Partnerships Director Terrence White and Office Assistant Yulia Ivanova. (photo courtesy Jennifer Bower)
“A true partnership is forged with give-and-take on both sides. Once the details are ironed out, you have to bring it across the finish line.”
For Bower and her team, there are more finish lines to cross regarding Snapdragon Stadium. When those additional naming rights agreements are closed, maybe then she will consider celebrating.
In the meantime, the Snapdragon Stadium agreement demonstrates she fully understands every aspect of what’s in a name regarding sport sponsorships.
“It’s definitely the biggest deal I have ever been part of,” she said. However, “at the end of the day, the process is the same for almost every deal. This one just had a few more zeros on it.”
Club seating in Snapdragon Stadium is currently available for purchase while general season tickets will be made available to those who have registered at snapdragonstadium.com beginning mid-January.