(Editor’s note: This is the 21st installment in a weekly series spotlighting Rhode Island FC and Centreville Bank Stadium from a business perspective throughout the 2025 United Soccer League Championship season. To read past stories in this series, click here.)
PAWTUCKET – When it comes to attracting companies to partner with Rhode Island FC, the soccer club has taken an approach synonymous with a well-known baseball movie.
“If you build it, they will come.”
Centreville Bank Stadium has become a magnet for local companies to emblazon their respective images across the 10,500-seat venue along the Seekonk River. Thus, it gives both organizations a chance to spotlight themselves to a mass of fans every event, with some of that advertising tied to the games, and also bring in needed operational revenue for both the club and the stadium.
Rhode Island FC President David Peart told Providence Business News that 60 total companies are now advertising with the club. That is twice as many as the club had in its inaugural year last year. Peart declined to say how much money has brought in from the advertisers – citing confidentiality – but said the sponsorship revenue generated has been “significant.” Peart also noted that he’s been “candidly impressed” on the number of companies reaching out to Rhode Island FC to advertise with the club.
[caption id="attachment_506567" align="alignleft" width="300"]
OME ADVERTISING SIGNAGE decorates Centreville Bank Stadium’s black support beams on each end of the venue. Rhode Island FC officials say the team has 60 corporate sponsors, twice as many as it had a year ago. PBN FILE PHOTO / JAMES BESSETTE[/caption]
“I think what’s transpired since the building opened, there’s been a number of sponsors that have been involved with the [Pawtucket Red Sox] previously and hadn’t done anything quite yet with us,” Peart said. “Now that the building’s open, they’ve been in there and seen the crowds for our first handful of games, right now they’re starting to reach out to talk about the various opportunities.”
Santoro Oil Co., Big Blue Bug Solutions, Isle Brewers Guild LLC, Bally’s Corp., Cox Communications Inc., Collette Travel Services Inc. and G-Form LLC are among local companies who have signage across Centreville Bank Stadium. The Ford Motor Co. sponsors the stadium’s north gate fan entrance. [PBN also has an advertising partnership with Rhode Island FC.]
AAA Insurance Agency Inc.’s logo shines above the market plaza on the stadium’s south end, and also sponsors the T1 parking lot, AAA northeast Director of Public Relations Jillian Young told PBN.
Such partnerships have also netted the club more tickets sold. Peart said 12% of the club’s total ticket sales have come from the sponsorship packages for local companies partnering with Rhode Island FC.
With that, it’s an overall win-win for Rhode Island FC and the local companies alike, Peart said, in community support.
“We encourage our partners to use RIFC the same way we use it. We bring people and corporations to our games because we want to get them excited about our brand and our product as to who we are and what we’re all about,” he said. “[The companies in turn] take the energy and excitement and appeal of going to a live sporting event in our state and use it to help sell their products and brands and improve their relationships.”
Young said it “felt natural” for AAA to partner with Rhode Island FC as a sponsor because the travel and auto services company, much like the soccer club, regularly engages with the local community as well as “want to support a new fixture” in the Ocean State.
North Kingstown-based Falvey Insurance Group sponsors one of the stadium’s riverside midfield premium pavilions. The company felt it was a “perfect opportunity” to provide further community support and also offer its employees suite access via an internal raffle system, said Megan Bell, Falvey’s senior vice president of marketing. The company also partnered with Johnson-based Operation Stand Down to bring military veterans to a recent match, as well, Bell said. In total, that suite has welcomed at least 100 people to Rhode Island FC matches, she said.
Sponsorships are also customized to enhance the fan’s game-day experience, Peart said. Case in point, Chick-Fil-A of Attleboro sponsors the “corner kick” set play, where all fans receive free meals from the fast-food establishment if Rhode Island FC scores a goal off of that play.
Centreville Bank, which also has the stadium’s naming rights, also sponsors a halftime contest where a fan can win $500 if he or she can kick the ball off of the goal’s crossbar. So far, that contest has been won at least three times.
“We make sure those game-day activations are authentic to the game experience. We’re not running commercials, per se, on the video board,” Peart said. “But we’re … sort of enhancing the game-day experience as opposed to interrupting the event with the commercial.”
Young says it’s too early to tell if AAA has seen increased business by sponsoring Rhode Island FC, but stated there are “so many opportunities” to work together going forward, such as making more community connections. Bell said Falvey plans to entertain clients at upcoming matches “when it makes sense.”
“It’s a great way to showcase our state and it’s something new and beautiful for us to have access to,” Bell said.
Current team record (wins-losses-draws): 8-11-7, 31 points; 9th place of 12 in USL Championship Eastern Conference
Result of previous match: Rhode Island FC 2, El Paso Locomotive 2 (from Sept. 26)
Next match: Rhode Island FC vs. Las Vegas Lights, Oct. 5 at Centreville Bank Stadium at 5 p.m.
James Bessette is a contributing writer and former PBN special projects editor. You may follow him on X at @James_Bessette.
