The Vice President of Naming Rights will work directly with Athletic Directors, alongside of commercial partnership VPs and senior university stakeholders to identify and commercialize naming rights opportunities for arenas, stadiums, and other high-profile athletic venues across Learfield's portfolio. Success in this role will be defined by the ability to originate opportunities and partner with Learfield's Commercial Partnerships team to develop and close transformational sponsorship agreements.
This role is ideal for a proven rainmaker with deep experience selling naming rights, entitlement partnerships, and large-scale sponsorship platforms who thrives on relationship building, business development, and revenue generation.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities:
Business Development & Revenue Generation
Lead Learfield's naming rights business development efforts across its portfolio of collegiate athletic properties.
Identify and cultivate naming rights opportunities for stadiums, arenas and other premium university assets.
Work with Commercial Partnership VPs to partner directly with Athletic Directors, university presidents, and athletic department leadership to gain approval and alignment on taking assets to market.
Develop and maintain a robust pipeline of naming rights and entitlement partnership opportunities.
Drive prospecting efforts and cultivate relationships with Fortune 500 brands, agencies, and senior marketing executives.
Lead the sales process for high-value opportunities, from identifying prospects through negotiation and contract execution.
Secure new revenue streams through long-term naming rights agreements and integrated sponsorship platforms.
Collaboration with Commercial Partnerships
Work hand-in-hand with Learfield's Commercial Partnerships team to bring naming rights opportunities to market.
Collaborate with local and national sales teams to identify prospects, develop customized partnership solutions, and accelerate deal flow.
Serve as the naming rights subject matter expert, supporting Commercial Partnerships teams throughout the sales cycle.
Coordinate internal resources to ensure opportunities are effectively positioned, marketed, and sold.
Partner with property leadership and sales teams to maximize the value of naming rights opportunities within broader sponsorship discussions.
University & Stakeholder Engagement
Build strong relationships with Athletic Directors and senior university decision-makers across Learfield's portfolio.
Serve as a trusted partner to university leadership throughout the process of evaluating and commercializing naming rights assets.
Present recommendations and opportunities to key institutional stakeholders.
Help educate and guide university leaders on industry best practices and market opportunities related to naming rights partnerships.
Industry Leadership
Maintain knowledge of naming rights trends, industry benchmarks, and emerging opportunities within sports and collegiate athletics.
Represent Learfield at industry events, conferences, and executive meetings.
Leverage an extensive network of brand and agency relationships to identify and create new partnership opportunities.
Impact:
This role will be instrumental in driving significant new revenue for Learfield and its university partners by identifying, developing, and commercializing naming rights opportunities across one of the most expansive portfolios in collegiate athletics. The ideal candidate will combine elite business development skills with deep sponsorship expertise to help universities unlock the value of their most important assets while delivering meaningful partnerships for leading brands.
Required Experience:
15+ years of sales, sponsorship, business development, or partnership experience.
Proven track record selling naming rights, entitlement partnerships, and other large-scale sponsorship agreements.
Demonstrated success securing multi-million-dollar partnerships and complex platform-based deals.
Extensive experience building relationships with Fortune 500 brands, agencies, and C-suite decision-makers.
Strong business development and consultative sales skills with the ability to create opportunities from concept through close.
Exceptional presentation, negotiation, and relationship management abilities.
Experience working across multiple stakeholders and managing long sales cycles.
Preferred Experience:
Experience in collegiate athletics, professional sports, sports marketing, media, or entertainment.
Existing network of senior marketing executives, sponsorship buyers, and agency leaders.
Understanding of collegiate athletics and the evolving landscape of college sports.
Key Competencies:
Business Development
Revenue Generation
Naming Rights & Entitlement Sales
Executive Relationship Management
Consultative Selling
Negotiation & Deal Structuring
Sponsorship Sales
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Influencing & Stakeholder Management
Strategic Prospecting
Travel Requirements:
This position requires extensive travel, including frequent visits to university campuses, client meetings, industry conferences, and partner presentations. Candidates should expect to travel approximately 40-50% of the time.
Pay Transparency:
The approximate national base pay range for this position is $215,000 to $275,000. Please note that this is a good faith estimate for the position at the time of posting. Individuals may also be eligible for an annual discretionary bonus and/or sales compensation based on individual and company performance. Placement on the range may vary based on factors including but not limited to job-related knowledge, skills, and experience, and geographic location. The pay rate will comply with all minimum federal, state, and local wage/salary requirements.
Learfield offers a full spectrum of benefits for eligible employees including Medical, Dental, Vision, Health Savings Account, Life Insurance and Other Insurance Plans, Flexible Paid Time Off (minimum 10+ days annually), including Parental Leave, 20 Paid Holidays, 401(k) + Match, and Short/Long Term Disability. Leave benefits are consistent with state and local laws, including the Colorado Health Families and Workplaces Act.
Learfield is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees without regard to race; color; sex; gender identity; sexual orientation; religious practices and observances; national origin; pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions; status as a protected veteran or spouse/family member of a protected veteran; or disability.
Skills Required
- 15+ years of sales, sponsorship, business development, or partnership experience
- Proven track record selling naming rights, entitlement partnerships, and large-scale sponsorship agreements
- Demonstrated success securing multi-million-dollar partnerships and complex platform-based deals
- Extensive relationships with Fortune 500 brands, agencies, and C-suite decision-makers
- Strong business development and consultative sales skills from opportunity creation through closing
- Exceptional presentation, negotiation, and relationship management abilities
- Experience working across multiple stakeholders and managing long sales cycles
- Experience in collegiate athletics, professional sports, sports marketing, media, or entertainment
- Existing network of senior marketing executives, sponsorship buyers, and agency leaders
- Understanding of collegiate athletics and the evolving college sports landscape
What We Do
College sports is our business, and we love what we do. On game day and every day, our countless innovations connect brands to fans. LEARFIELD - a leading media and technology company in college athletics - is the number one provider of multimedia rights, licensing, ticketing, fan-targeted digital advertising, official athletic websites, original content programming, digital signage, social, ticketing, and development services, and more to our college partners and beyond. We love to help our university & brand partners achieve their goals. Career opportunities shared via LinkedIn and on our website include openings across the country in our corporate offices in Plano, TX (HQ); Atlanta, GA; Jefferson City, MO; New York, NY; Winston-Salem, NC and Irvine, CA. We also post openings available within our owned companies: ANC, CLC, Paciolan, SIDEARM Sports, MogoSME and LEARFIELD Amplify. When Fans Matter When Brands Matter When Experience Matters When Innovation Matters When Passion Matters
