Naming rights to baseball facility sold, again

It was announced to the media today that a deal selling the naming rights for UVSC's baseball stadium has been made, thus ending years of uncertainty over what exactly to call the facility.

For now it appears that local auto dealer Brent "Bend Over Backwards" Brown will be the one putting up the dough to see his name above the scoreboard. His $1 million (which the Des News article is calling a donation?) will be matched by Arizona philanthropists Ira and Mary Lou Fulton, though their names will not be featured on the facility.

You can read all about it here:

UVSC announces baseball stadium donors (Deseret Morning News)

UPDATE: UVSC stadium gets new name (Daily Herald)

UVSC stadium named Brent Brown Ballpark (Salt Lake Tribune)

Students at UVSC should sleep a little better tonight as this deal will end the two year ordeal as to who would be paying the bill for the stadium. When the county issued the bond a few years back they made UVSC secure funding by putting student fee money up if donors or a naming rights deal fell through.

In 2005 that is exactly what happened. After failing to make two bond payments Craig Pickering, who was at the time the owner of Parkway Crossing apartments, backed out of a $1.7 million naming rights deal with the college. To many of those involved the deal seemed fishy from the start, as Pickering is in-laws with UVSC Athletic Director Mike Jacobsen. When everyone else had cut bait on Pickering it was Jacobsen who still called it Parkway Crossing Stadium.

A 2006 article in The College Times found that the school ended up covering Parkway Crossing's payments for two years while still hoping they would come through. Then college spokesperson Derek Hall said that those payments were made with auxiliary funds and did not come from student fees. Who knows how the 2006 payment was made!

But it appears that Brown and the Fulton's have saved UVSC's bacon. Now if UVSC Athletics could just find a NCAA Div I conference to play in.