Most youth sports sponsorship announcements describe what the brand gets. On September 2, the operator of a 275-acre complex in Mesa, Arizona described what the money lets him avoid charging.
Arizona Athletic Grounds named PepsiCo a Founding Partner and its official soft drink partner in a seven-year agreement carrying what both companies call a multimillion-dollar value through 2033. Then Mike Burke, the complex's CEO, added a sentence that almost never appears in these releases:
"This investment by PepsiCo also allows us to keep prices for our world-class amenities competitive."
What the Deal Covers
The beverage lineup running across the campus includes Gatorade, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Starry, Aquafina, LIFEWTR, Starbucks, Celsius, Alani Nu, and Rockstar Energy, served through concessions, fieldhouses, and competition venues. Arizona Athletic Grounds describes itself as one of the largest sports and entertainment complexes in North America, with more than 150 fields and courts and 500,000 indoor square feet on those 275 acres in Mesa.
The traffic behind the price is the reason a beverage company signs for seven years. The company reports nearly 3 million visitors in 2025 and 1.8 million so far in 2026, a pace it says is up 6 percent. The campus has hosted the PPA Tour, MLS NEXT, Major League Pickleball, Nike EYBL, USA Basketball, and Special Olympics Arizona, and served as a 2026 FIFA World Cup Base Camp for the Türkiye men's national team.
On the other side of the table, PepsiCo generated nearly $94 billion in net revenue in 2025. A multimillion-dollar commitment spread over seven years is a rounding error on that income statement and a meaningful revenue line for a single sports campus. That asymmetry is exactly what makes a long-dated exclusive pour agreement worth pursuing for a facility operator.
Shay Hobby, Senior Vice President, West Region, PepsiCo Beverages U.S., described the appeal from the brand side as a campus "that attracts major athletes from across the country."
The Sentence Operators Should Copy
Burke's line about keeping prices competitive is doing more than public relations. It is a public statement that sponsorship revenue at this complex offsets what families pay to use it, and it converts an abstract marketing expense into a concrete answer to the single loudest complaint in American youth sports.
The affordability argument has been running against the industry all year, and most of the responses have been philanthropic: grant programs, scholarship funds, fee waivers for qualifying families. Those are worthwhile and they are also narrow, because they reach the households that apply. A sponsorship dollar applied to the venue's own cost base reaches every family that walks in, with no application and no means test.
The release doesn’t put a number on the price effect, which points to the next step for the industry: operators who can show exactly what a partnership saves families will have an even stronger case to bring to sponsors. As commercial positioning, Burke’s framing already shows where facility operators have room to run, selling exclusivity on the operator’s ability to hold the line on user fees as well as on audience reach.
Nearly Three Million Visitors Is the Product
At its core, what Arizona Athletic Grounds offers a sponsor is something few venues can match: a large, loyal family audience that keeps coming back. Nearly three million visitors a year means families arriving on a schedule the operator sets, staying for hours, and buying food and drink in a closed retail environment with one beverage supplier.
That is a better-defined audience than most regional media buys, and it is why the seven-year term is the detail worth noting. Long-dated exclusivity gives the sponsor a guaranteed place in front of a growing audience and gives the operator a predictable revenue line it can plan pricing around through 2033. Both sides are betting on the same attendance curve.
Takeaways for Investors
Sponsorship Applied to User Fees Is a New Pitch
An operator publicly tying brand money to keeping family prices competitive gives the entire sponsorship business a stronger story in a year of affordability scrutiny. Expect the framing to spread.
Seven Years Gives Both Sides Something to Plan Around
A deal through 2033 gives PepsiCo long-term access to a growing family audience and gives Arizona Athletic Grounds revenue it can build pricing around. For operators, long-dated exclusivity is most valuable when it’s tied to a clear plan for what the money funds.
Foot Traffic Is the Underwritable Asset at a Complex
Nearly three million annual visitors in a controlled retail setting is a measurable, repeatable audience. That is the number that supports beverage, quick-service, apparel, and financial services partnerships, in that order of obviousness.
The Next Step Is Showing the Math
Burke has made the affordability case publicly. Operators who build on it by quantifying what sponsorship saves per family or per registration will give sponsors a measurable story to stand behind, and give investors a clearer view of how brand dollars move through a facility’s cost base.
