In a move that surprises absolutely no one who has ever tried to get a decent signal in certain parts of town, AT&T is officially ghosting Texas Tech. After twenty years of slapping their logo on the side of Jones Stadium, the telecom giant has decided that their naming rights deal has reached its expiration date this May. Apparently, two decades of mediocre football and “The Jones” being the only part of the name anyone actually uses finally convinced them to spend their marketing budget elsewhere.
University officials are playing it cool, claiming there’s “no drama” and that they’re still “in talks” for other partnerships—which is corporate-speak for “we’re still friends, but they’re definitely moving out of the house.” Tech is now scrambling to find a new corporate sugar daddy before the 2026 football season kicks off, because heaven forbid we just have a stadium named after a person without a Fortune 500 company attached to it like a parasite.
The “partnership” officially ends after the George Strait concert in April. So, if you’ve ever wanted to hear “Amarillo by Morning” while staring at a logo for a company that charges you $15 a month for “administrative fees,” this is your last chance. After that, the signs come down, and we return to the brief, terrifying era of just calling it “Jones Stadium” until some other conglomerate decides they want their brand associated with $14 stadium nachos.
The Hub City Take
It’s honestly impressive that it took AT&T twenty years to realize that Lubbockites are physically incapable of saying “Jones AT&T Stadium” in a casual sentence. We barely have the lung capacity to finish a sentence during allergy season as it is.
Local media is already speculating that the price tag went up because Tech is supposedly entering a “new tier of national exposure,” which is a cute way of saying we’re hoping a billionaire with an ego problem wants to see their logo on ESPN+ three times a year. We’re currently in a holding pattern, praying that the athletic department doesn’t get desperate and sell the rights to a local personal injury lawyer or a chain of express car washes.
Can’t wait for the 2026 home opener at the Raising Cane’s “No Slaw, Extra Toast” Memorial Coliseum.
https://www.kcbd.com/2026/02/19/stadium-naming-rights-deal-between-texas-tech-att-set-expire/