Bulldog Sports Properties,<\/a> the local unit of Learfield Communications, a national company that held the media rights for Bulldogs sports since 2004. Football and other Bulldog sports had aired on stations owned by iHeartMedia, including PowerTalk 96.7 and Fox Sports 1340 in Fresno, for the last five years. Games aired on the Fat Dawgs stations from 2013 through the spring of 2021.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is not something that is a detriment to our growth. This is something that can be a competitive advantage,\u201d Fresno State Athletics Director Garrett Klassy said.<\/p>\n
The goal of BSE is to increase revenues in areas such as corporate sponsorships, ticketing and premium seating, and athlete name image and likeness. Net profit share will be split 80% for Fresno State and 20% for BSE for most assets. Field logos and jersey patches would be a 90\/10 split.<\/p>\n
Klassy said several companies bid for the Fresno State rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to lead. We\u2019re Fresno State. We don\u2019t just rest on our laurels, sit back and wait for things to happen. We go out and we attack,\u201d Klassy said.<\/p>\n
Klassy said there are benefits to partnering with locals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not signing a 15-year deal \u2014 the president\u2019s not signing a deal \u2014 with companies that don\u2019t believe in Fresno State. We\u2019re done taking 50 cents on the dollar. I inherited some revenue contracts here that are just horrendous,\u201d Klassy said.<\/p>\n
A New College Sports Model<\/p>\n
Klassy said the \u201cold model\u201d of college athletics no longer worked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to lead. We\u2019re Fresno State. We don\u2019t just rest on our laurels, sit back and wait for things to happen. And we go out and we attack,\u201d Klassy said.<\/p>\n
Klassy wants to run BSE \u201clike a pro sports model,\u201d where sponsors and benefactors only have to meet with one entity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe Fresno State should control its brand, its assets, and its future. One thing that I\u2019ve been very stern about in my 30-plus years in college athletics is that. I believe a university\u2019s most valuable asset is its intellectual property,\u201d Klassy said.<\/p>\n
Pacheco said BSE will \u201cdo things differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to build this the right way. Valley first, Fresno State first. That means being more connected to the community, working with businesses that believe in this place, creating partnerships that have meaning and provide value,\u201d said Pacheco.<\/p>\n
Klassy also made a pitch to local businesses to join in. He said with the new Pac-12 deal, football games will be visible in more homes. More men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball games will be on national TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you own a business and you don\u2019t have an allegiance to Fresno State, I guarantee your customers do,\u201d Klassy said.<\/p>\n
Future of the Football Stadium<\/p>\n
Klassy said BSE will help with the future of naming rights and the future of the stadium itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know at this point what the future looks like for our football stadium, but I do know that we\u2019re working on it daily,\u201d Klassy said.<\/p>\n
That includes naming rights. Klassy emphasized he is not trying to replace Valley Children\u2019s Hospital \u2014 which is in the middle of a 10-year, $10 million deal to name the stadium<\/a> through 2032.<\/p>\n\u201cThe reality is that naming rights, not just for a stadium or the areas around it, are critical to the financial piece of getting something built or renovated,\u201d Klassy said.<\/p>\n
Klassy was critical of long-term deals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to control the flexibility so we have that financial freedom in the future,\u201d Klassy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno State sports are changing radio stations and the way the school will sell its media rights. \u201cI\u2019m…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-236479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GVWire-Ad-Get-our-mobile-app-1280x90-1-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Bulldogs-Sports-Enterprises-President-Chris-Pacheco-left-and-Fresno-State-Athletics-Director-Garrett.jpeg\")
<\/a>Bulldog Sports Enterprises President Chris Pacheco (left) and Fresno State Athletics Director Garrett Klassy discuss a new marketing rights deal at a March 25, 2026, news conference. (GV Wire\/David Taub)