As if Pitbull, aka Mr. 305 could get any more Miami, Florida International University’s football stadium will now be known as Pitbull Stadium.
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Pitbull announced the news of his five-year deal for the naming rights to FIU Stadium on Tuesday, August 6, which stipulates he will pay the school $1.2 million per year for the length of the agreement. An agreement which will also allow Mr. 305 to be able to host 10 events per year at the stadium rent-free, including concerts.
As reported by ESPN, the deal, which has an option to renew the agreement for five additional years, include a few other requirements from Pitbull other than those hefty yearly payments, which includes to record a new FIU anthem, post about the school a dozen times every year, and appear at one athletics fundraising event per year.
"For me, what it boils down to is, Miami is always known for being underdogs, no matter what we do and what level we take it to," Pitbull said during the announcement ceremony. "Being underdogs is what I always felt about FIU -- fighting, clawing their way to just be seen, to be recognized whether it be from education, business, through sports."
"So when this idea came about, it came about just like a Miami-Dade County, 305 idea would come about -- nobody would believe in it. All we had to do was, just like we say in Miami, take it to the house.”
"What we're doing here is groundbreaking. We're making history. This is history in the making," Pitbull said of the Miami-based university becoming the first to have a college athletics building named after a musician.
"You're going to see that every other university is going to want to do the same thing,” Pitbull continued. “But the difference is, we don't do this for propaganda, we do it from the heart. We do it because it's meaningful. We do it because I'm from the crib. I'm 305. I'm from the bottom. This is my backyard.”
With a 20,000-seat capacity, FIU’s Stadium was originally known as FIU Community Stadium when it opened in 1995. It was renamed Ocean Bank Field at FIU Stadium from 2001 to 2017 and Riccardo Silva Stadium from 2017 to 2022. And as we now all know, for the next five years, or maybe ten, will be enthusiastically hailed as Pitbull Stadium.