The Cal State University board of trustees voted today to approve an $8.5 million sponsorship deal with LBS Financial Credit Union and rename the Walter Pyramid.
The agreement to dub the arena the LBS Financial Pyramid will last 12 years, but the funds will be delivered upfront, allowing the university immediate access to the dollars that will bring Beach Athletics into a new era, said Bobby Smitheran, Long Beach State athletic director.
Smitheran said Long Beach State plans to look strategically across the student athlete experience and identify the greatest needs, both short and long term, from overdue facility improvements to scholarship enhancements to special projects, the Long Beach Post previously reported. Ten percent of the gift will go to the Campus Activities Fund; the rest is earmarked for athletics.
The NCAA landscape has changed dramatically over the history of the university’s iconic stadium. Long Beach architect Don Gibbs designed the pyramid — one of only four in the country — which was completed in 1994 and cost $22 million. A decade later, Mike and Arline Walter, longtime supporters of the university, donated $2 million to defray the cost, and the pyramid bore their name.
Since then, newly allowed revenue-sharing opportunities and expanded scholarship opportunities in nearly every sport have forced the university to “look at every revenue-generating opportunity possible,” Smitheran said.
He hopes this sponsorship will “maximize our potential for winning championships” and be a “rallying point for our campus and the larger Long Beach Community.”
Barbara Kingsley-Wilson, CSULB lecturer and author of multiple books on the university’s history, said the renaming is “a big deal,” but the soaring costs of college athletics mean “it’s not that surprising.”