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<\/p>\nHOUSTON \u2013 Rice fans heading to Saturday\u2019s football game against UTSA will hear a new name for the school\u2019s stadium: First Community Stadium.<\/p>\n
Rice interim athletic director Eric George announced Thursday the change is part of a 20-year agreement between Rice University and First Community Credit Union that combines stadium naming rights with a broader campus partnership. <\/p>\n
The credit union will become the official financial institution of Rice Athletics, Rice Football and the Association of Rice Alumni.<\/p>\n
The deal also creates new opportunities for Rice students. First Community plans to support financial literacy efforts, offer internships and work with the university\u2019s career development center on post-graduation opportunities, according to university officials. Banking services and special programs will also be available to students, faculty, staff and alumni.<\/p>\n
Rice President Reginald DesRoches said the agreement could benefit the university community while strengthening the school\u2019s connection to Houston.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether, we will build on the proud tradition of Rice Athletics while strengthening its ability to bring together and inspire our city,\u201d DesRoches said.<\/p>\n
The renamed stadium will be introduced during Rice\u2019s Oct. 3 home game against UTSA, which marks the start of conference play for the Owls.<\/p>\n
The venue, which opened in 1950, is also included in the university\u2019s Gateway Project. The planned renovation is part of a larger effort to remake the west side of campus and create a stronger link to Rice Village.<\/p>\n
First Community was founded in 1954 by educators in Spring Branch ISD. It now has more than 190,000 members, 14 branches and more than $3.1 billion in assets, serving customers across 41 Texas counties.<\/p>\n
Future Rice-themed debit and credit cards are expected to give fans access to special athletics events and other benefits. <\/p>\n
Start Here, Houston<\/p>\n
More Stories Like This In Our Email Newsletter<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Rice fans heading to Saturday\u2019s football game against UTSA will hear a new name for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[301,76917,155853,300,56,58,57,25291,155852,155851,514,154],"class_list":["post-453629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-athletics","tag-first-community-credit-union","tag-first-community-stadium","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-rice","tag-rice-athletics","tag-rice-stadium","tag-rice-university","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}