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Washington trades a century of naming purity for undisclosed Columbia Bank cash as Big Ten revenue pressure mounts.
$10.2 billion
in assets and
139
branches across Washington
$3-6 million
annually for naming rights
$18 million
behind Oregon in annual athletic revenue
The University of Washington announced a naming-rights agreement with Columbia Bank, ending the 102-year run of Husky Stadium as one of college football's last unbranded major venues. Financial terms were not disclosed. The stadium will be referred to as Husky Stadium at Columbia Bank Field or similar hybrid branding, preserving the legacy name while monetizing the signage.
Columbia Bank is a Tacoma-based regional lender with $10.2 billion in assets and 139 branches across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The bank has no prior stadium naming portfolio. Washington athletic director Pat Chun called the deal "transformative" in a statement that avoided specifics on duration or annual payment. Industry comps suggest mid-size Power Five stadiums command $3-6 million annually for naming rights, though legacy venue deals with partial naming often trade at a discount.
The move matters because Washington held out longer than most. Oregon's Autzen Stadium remains sponsor-free. UCLA sold the Rose Bowl's field naming to United Airlines. Michigan keeps Michigan Stadium clean but monetizes everything inside it. Washington is $18 million behind Oregon in annual athletic revenue, per the latest filings, and the athletic department ran an operating deficit last year despite Big Ten media payouts starting this fall. This deal closes part of that gap without touching tuition subsidy.
Columbia Bank gets brand placement in a market where they already operate, which is not expansion capital—it's defensive spend. They are competing with Seattle-based Umpqua, Alaska Airlines' regional dominance, and national brands circling the Pacific Northwest. Naming Husky Stadium ties the bank to 70,000 weekend customers six times a year and college football's most affluent alumni demo. The risk is collegiate naming deals age poorly when the team underperforms. Washington finished 6-7 last season.
Watch for signage mock-ups by late spring, which will indicate whether Columbia Bank insisted on field-level branding or settled for plaza and gate naming. The Pac-12's collapse into the Big Ten created a scramble for new revenue streams across the West Coast; Utah, Colorado, and Arizona are all revisiting facility monetization. Oregon has taken $200 million-plus from Phil Knight without putting his name on the stadium. Washington did not have that option.
Columbia Bank's sponsorship strategy in Seattle sports has been scatter-shot—local marathons, some Seahawks radio—but nothing at this scale. The bank's stock trades at 0.9x book value, below peers, which makes a branding play logical even if the CFO has to explain it on the next earnings call.
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