Rice Stadium has a new name. The 76-year-old Houston venue will be known as First Community Stadium starting with Rice's home game Saturday against UTSA, following a 20-year naming-rights and campus collaboration agreement between Rice University and First Community Credit Union.
The deal was announced Thursday by Rice interim athletic director Eric George, according to riceowls.com. Under the agreement, First Community Credit Union becomes the official financial institution of Rice Football, Rice Athletics and the Association of Rice Alumni, with the stadium carrying the credit union's name for the length of the two-decade partnership. The announcement credits Elevate with leading the national search for a stadium naming-rights and campus partner for Rice.
Rice Stadium originally opened in 1950, and the renaming lands just as the Owls prepare to host UTSA on Saturday, a game that also marks the start of conference play. As reported by Click2Houston, Rice president Reginald DesRoches said the agreement could benefit the university community while strengthening Rice's connection to Houston.
More Than a Name on the Scoreboard
The partnership stretches well beyond stadium signage. First Community Credit Union plans to support financial-literacy education across campus, establish internship programs for Rice students, and work with Rice's Center for Career Development to provide opportunities for graduates, per the same riceowls.com announcement. The credit union will also offer banking services and special programs to Rice students, alumni, faculty and staff.
Fans, meanwhile, will be able to get Rice Athletics-branded debit and credit cards that come with access to special athletics events and other perks, the announcement notes. First Community Credit Union says it holds more than $3.1 billion in assets, serves over 190,000 members across 41 Texas counties, and was founded in 1954 by educators in Spring Branch ISD. The riceowls.com release puts its branch count at 14 full-service locations, though a June 30 credit-union profile from ncuso.org lists 16 branches for the Houston-headquartered, state-chartered institution.
A Stadium Already Bound for Big Changes
The naming deal arrives alongside bigger plans for the stadium itself. Rice Stadium is included in the university's Gateway Project, a $120 million initiative aimed at merging the stadium and parts of the west side of campus with Rice Village, according to CW39. Rice has described the goal as creating a seamless, pedestrian-friendly corridor linking campus to the heart of the Village.
As part of that renovation, stadium capacity is expected to shrink from roughly 47,000 seats to just over 30,000, a change Rice says aligns with broader trends in college athletics toward lower overall capacity paired with more premium seating options. Plans also call for a new three-level west concourse building with 14 private suites, and construction on the stadium and related Gateway components is expected to continue through 2028.
Not the Only Stadium Changing Hands
Rice's arrangement follows a similar playbook seen elsewhere in college sports. The University of Arkansas Department of Athletics struck a long-term partnership with CommunityAmerica Credit Union that will rename Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium as CommunityAmerica Razorback Stadium starting with the 2027 football season, designating the credit union as the Official Credit Union of Arkansas Athletics. That deal, detailed by Arkansas Athletics, also includes Name, Image and Likeness opportunities and financial education for Razorback student-athletes, with CommunityAmerica reporting nearly $10 billion in assets and more than 600,000 members — a considerably larger footprint than First Community's.
For now, the focus in Houston is Saturday's kickoff, when fans will see the new First Community Stadium signage in person for the first time as the Owls open conference play against UTSA.
