Casey’s in store for naming rights

CASEY’S FTW: Casey’s General Store takes over naming rights for the Des Moines, Iowa arena on July 1, 2025. The arena’s new logo is shown here in a rendering. Wells Fargo Bank has held naming rights over the past 20 years. (Facebook)

Strong Iowa ties for Des Moines arena rebrand

Breakfast pizza lovers rejoice.

Casey’s General Store, the Iowa-born convenience store chain that forged its brand into the pop culture mainstream through its creative take on the most important meal of the day, took over naming rights for Des Moines’ 16,000-capacity arena. It’s a 10-year deal, valued at a total of $18 million, according to Chris Connolly, general manager of the building run by Oak View Group.

The venue, home of three minor league sports tenants, has been known as Wells Fargo Arena since it opened in 2005. Wells Fargo declined to renew its agreement, Connolly said. It falls in line with decisions the bank made to exit naming rights for Philadelphia’s big league arena, where Wells Fargo’s deal expires in August 2025,  and the PGA Tour event in Charlotte, where Truist took over as title sponsor.

In Des Moines, there’s a possibility Wells Fargo could keep its banking exclusive at a lower level of sponsorship, although no deal has been completed, Connolly said.

The deal for Casey’s Center was announced on Monday and became official on Tuesday after being approved by the Polk County Board of Supervisors. The agreement takes effect July 1, 2025.

The naming rights revenue will go to the county, which owns the arena, Connolly said. OVG Global Partnerships sold the deal. Oak View Group is the parent company of VenuesNow magazine.

Casey’s Center is a great fit in central Iowa, Connolly said. As part of its agreement, Casey’s, which offers both pickup and delivery from its stores, becomes the arena’s exclusive pizza provider, with opportunities to sell pizza at Hy-Vee Hall, the convention center across the street from the arena. Bordenaro’s Pizza, a Des Moines brand, has the arena’s pizza exclusive through June 30.

“One piece of this deal will bring Casey’s pizza into the arena in several locations,” Connolly said. “We all know how great their pizza is and what a big deal it is (to Iowans). They’re the third-largest convenience retailer and fifth-largest pizza chain in the country. They’ll take over existing pizza stands in the arena and a Casey’s-specific buildout on our south concourse that does not exist now, to sell pizza, snacks and other Casey’s-related items.”

Casey’s started in 1968 as a general store in Boone, Iowa and now has a presence in 17 states with more than 2,600 locations.

The publicly-traded company, whose headquarters are in Ankeny, Iowa, a Des Moines suburb, reported net income of $502 million for its most recent fiscal year, which ended in April, up 12% over the previous year. Net EBITDA was $1.06 billion, up 11% year over year. Casey’s built and acquired 154 stores over the past fiscal year and now has 8 million Casey’s Rewards members.

Casey’s sports marketing agreements extend to NASCAR events and individual race teams, including last year’s sponsorship of Kyle Busch’s No. 8 car at Kansas Speedway. Busch won both events at the September 2023 event. Casey’s has also held naming rights for NASCAR races at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, which sits 30 miles east of Des Moines.

As a brand, Casey’s has expanded its presence in general through social media outlets. It’s been serving pizza for 35 years, and has carved a niche in the Midwest for its breakfast pizza, a 23-year-old product, topped with eggs and bacon.

The food item garnered national acclaim and went viral after the breakfast pizza was reviewed in 2017 by Barstool Sports, an irreverent website catering to younger sports fans.

The arena, whose food is run by OVG Hospitality, plans to serve breakfast pizza for the Iowa high school boys and girls state basketball and wrestling championships in the spring, when the arena doors open at 7:30 a.m. for those events, according to Connolly.

“It’s a concept we like,” he said. “It will be event dependent, but we have a lot of stuff that happens in the morning.”

The process for finding a new naming rights partner goes back two years ago, when OVG and county officials had discussions with Wells Fargo about a renewal. After the bank declined to extend its deal, a call was made to Casey’s, which took immediate interest, Connolly said. Negotiations with Casey’s began in earnest about a year ago, he said.

The arena rebrand encompasses a building whose tenants are the AHL’s Iowa Wild and the G-League’s Iowa Wolves. Both teams are affiliates of Minnesota’s NHL and NBA teams in the Twin Cities. In addition, the Iowa Barnstormers, an arena football league team and a team best known for employing NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner before he advanced to pro football’s highest level, plays its spring and summer home games at the venue.

The facility recently played host to an NHL preseason game between the Utah Hockey Club, their first-ever game after moving from Arizona, and the St. Louis Blues, drawing 9,000 in attendance. An NBA preseason game, pitting the Minnesota Timberwolves and former Iowa all-American Luka Garza against the Philadelphia 76ers, attracted 14,000, Connolly said.

Plus, the NCAA earlier this month awarded the arena with men’s first and second round basketball tournament games in 2028, following up on the building’s 2023 first and second round contests, which drew U.S. Vice President and current presidential candidate Kamala Harris to watch Howard University, her alma mater, play in the tournament.

“It was only a two-year bid cycle (for 2027-28), so we feel fortunate to be in that mix again,” Connolly said. “We’ve got Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Brooks & Dunn, Sebastian Maniscalco, Disney on Ice and Pentatonix coming up. Business is strong right now.”