(MintPress) – On Tuesday, Florida Atlantic University (FAU) announced that after more than two-year search, they found a corporate sponsor, albeit an odd one, for its new 30,000-seat, palm-ringed football stadium — the GEO Group Inc., the nation’s second-largest operator of for-profit prisons. Throughout a 12-year span, GEO Group Inc., will pay $6 million to the school from the prison company’s charitable foundation, The GEO Group Foundation.
Since most for-profit prisons pay prisoners between $0.16 to $4.73 per hour for work, GEO benefits financially from paying far below minimum wage for labor.
As Mint Press News previously reported, it’s common practice for prisons to act outside of the rules of a free market economy, charging more for products, while relying on prisoners for cheap labor, increasing profits — which is likely how GEO was able to collect the $6 million it donated to FAU.
CEO of GEO, George Zoley reportedly earned a $1,145,000 salary in 2012, received a $1,334,498 bonus, and with stock options, earned about $5,734,949. And in 2011, GEO posted a $284 million profit, despite the fact that GEO prisons have been investigated for “horrendous conditions.”
GEO no longer operates any prisons in Mississippi after it was discovered that prison staff had sex with incarcerated youth; guards brutally beat youth and used pepper spray excessively as a first response; the prison showed “deliberate indifference” to prisoners possessing homemade knives that were used in gang fights and inmate rapes; and some of the guards had gang affiliations.
Charitable gift as marketing vehicle
According to a press release from FAU, the donation is the largest one-time gift in the history of the university’s athletics program, and will be used “to support athletic operations, including FAU’s intercollegiate athletic program, the stadium, scholarships and academic priorities.” GEO Group Foundation will also work with FAU to create “solid learning opportunities for students enrolled at the University, specifically in the areas of criminal justice, social work and nursing.”
Despite the fact that GEO is a for-profit prison company, whose customers are government agencies, FAU described the organization in the press release as “the first fully integrated equity real estate investment trust specializing in the design, financing, development and operation of correctional, detention, and community reentry facilities around the globe.
“The GEO Group is the world’s leading provider of diversified correctional, detention, and community reentry services to government agencies worldwide with operations in the United States, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The GEO Group’s worldwide operations include the ownership and/or management of 101 facilities totaling 73,000 beds with a growing workforce of approximately 18,000 professionals. Through its charitable foundation, The GEO Group Foundation, the company supports charitable and educational causes nationwide and fosters national and international amateur sports competition.”
While FAU sings the praises of GEO, many sports marketing experts are puzzled by the FAU’s decision to name the football stadium after a prison.
“It appears to be a charitable gift that is trying to be a marketing vehicle, and it just doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon’s business school. “To link themselves with an athletic department when their business is locking people up, it just doesn’t connect to me really well.”
Critics of the for-profit industry agree with Swangard that the relationship is an odd one, but add that the donation is likely part of GEO’s effort to influence state and local public officials.
“The company is dependent on public dollars for all of its profits,” said Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership, a criminal justice advocacy group. “When you look at other things that GEO gives to, it’s generally in communities where they either have contracts or are seeking contracts, and certainly Florida is a state where GEO has tremendous interest.”
In the press release, FAU claims that the reason they partnered with GEO is because George Zoley, GEO’s chairman, is a two-time FAU alumnus and former chair of FAU’s Board of Trustees, and have since assured the public that the naming rights were part of a philanthropic mission.
“Often, companies are criticized for not engaging in enough philanthropic ventures, but we strongly believe in the importance of good corporate citizenship,” Geo Group spokesman, Pablo Paez said, adding that the gift will help “thousands of students attend a first-class institution of higher learning over the next 12 years.”
But skepticism remains and there is truth in what Libal said about GEO trying to build a relationship with local lawmakers.
As the Huffington Post reported, in the last three election cycles, the GEO Group has donated more than $1.2 million to the Florida Republican Party. Last year, state Republicans almost passed legislation that would have approved a massive expansion of private prisons in south Florida.
FAU spokeswoman Lisa Metcalf has since released a statement saying that the naming rights are not a “corporate sponsorship” and that GEO will not be given tickets nor additional promotional benefits, such as program advertising or television commercials. However, marketing experts still view the partnership as an odd choice and point out that naming rights are a major marketing move, not a philanthropic one.
“If it’s pure philanthropy, you don’t ask for your name to go on the stadium,” said Don Sexton, a professor of marketing at Columbia University’s Business School and president of the Arrow Group, a marketing firm. “The only reason you want your name on the stadium is because you want to get something back.”
The GEO Group football stadium will have its debut at FAU’s Boca Raton campus on Sept. 3, 2013.