LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – For the first time in school history, Little Rock Athletics will outsource its comprehensive multimedia rights and sponsorship initiatives by selecting Learfield as its partner for the next 10 years.
While the relationship is concurrent with the 2017-18 athletic season, Director of Athletics Chasse Conque and his administration are already working closely with Learfield, which has begun vetting personnel for the establishment of its “Little Rock Trojan Sports Properties”. This local team will be solely dedicated to representing the Trojans and managing all aspects of the rights agreement, which includes signage, digital, corporate sponsorships, television and radio play-by-play, and coaches’ shows.
“We are excited about our partnership with Learfield and our staff looks forward to working with their team to advance Little Rock Athletics. Learfield will allow Trojan Athletics to expand our already strong corporate sponsorship program,” said Conque. “We are most appreciative of the local corporate support of Little Rock’s Team, which accounts for a significant part of our external revenue. I have been impressed with the entire Learfield team and am confident our department and our loyal corporate partners will benefit from this long-term partnership.”
With the addition of Little Rock, Learfield now represents a total of eight Sun Belt Conference members as it holds individual rights agreements with Arkansas State, Georgia Southern, Idaho, ULM, New Mexico State, UTA and Texas State. As a complement to the new rights agreement, Little Rock and Learfield also share another commonality as the university already has existing partnerships with Learfield Licensing Partners, and SIDEARM Sports, a Learfield company that serves as digital provider for the official athletics website, LRTrojans.com.
“We’re looking forward to working with the Trojans and having the opportunity to team with Chasse and his administration on continuing to help build their brand on a local, regional and national platform,” said Learfield President and CEO Greg Brown. “We appreciate the university trusting us to represent them in the market and certainly we understand the importance of a market like Little Rock in the state of Arkansas.”
An industry leader for more than four decades, Learfield has a deep presence in the college athletics landscape nationwide. It manages the multimedia and sponsorship rights for more than 120 collegiate institutions, conferences and arenas, and supports athletic departments at all competitive levels as title sponsor of the prestigious Learfield Directors’ Cup. Learfield also provides its collegiate partners access to professional concessions and ticket sales; branding, licensing and trademark consulting; digital and social platform expertise; campus-wide business and sponsorship development; and venue and technology systems through its affiliated companies.