From Deseret News archives:

No check from UVSC donor

Payment for stadium naming rights is absent

Published: Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2005 9:21 a.m. MST
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OREM — For the second time, a donor that pledged a major financial gift to secure the naming rights of Utah Valley State College's multimillion-dollar baseball stadium is failing to come through with the promised money.

As a result, there's a difficult question on the horizon for UVSC administrators: Will they strike out entirely with this donor, too?

In 2001, UVSC terminated a pact it forged with Utah Valley businessman Gary Brinton. School officials said the $750,000 agreement, which would have secured the naming rights of the stadium, was severed because of conflicts over the size, scope and cost of the project.

Now, the school has been forced to make the second payment toward the stadium-construction debt because two developers who agreed to donate $1.7 million in exchange for the 2,500-seat stadium's naming rights have not paid up.

Craig Pickering and Heath Johnston, co-developers of the Parkway Crossing student-apartment complex, have not paid any of the money they promised in 2003.

A message left at Parkway Crossing's offices requesting comment was not returned.

According to a copy of the gift agreement obtained by the Deseret Morning News through the Government Records Access and Management Act, a payment must be made Nov. 1 each year until 2013.

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The payments increase each year — the 2004 payment was $96,289 and the 2006 bill is $169,148 — until the pledge is paid in full. The last payment is scheduled to be $323,628.

Parkway Crossing officials did not make either this year's scheduled $147,000 payment or last year's $96,289 payment.

UVSC accountants in November paid $384,000 toward the Utah County government-issued, $6.5 million bond that was sold to pay for stadium construction, said Derek Hall, the college's chief spokesman.

The school came up with Parkway Crossing's portion of the payment by dipping into "plant and auxiliary funds," Hall said.

Plant funds are reserved for buildings around campus, Hall said. He was unsure whether those funds come from student tuition and fees.

"Auxiliary funds are money-making (operations) like the bookstore," Hall said.

November's payment was the first that UVSC had to make toward the bond, which pays for the stadium and consolidates other debt, Hall said.

When the stadium was finished in March, the words "Parkway Crossing" did not appear on its signs. UVSC administrators later asked sports reporters to not refer to Parkway Crossing when mentioning the stadium. The college prefers the "home of the Wolverines" when its baseball team is playing.

UVSC administrators are "not actively" seeking a new donor, Hall said.

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