Data centers are facing widespread and rapidly growing opposition across the United States. A recent Gallup Poll shows that 71% of Americans oppose building AI data centers in their local neighborhoods. More than 100 data center projects have already been canceled this year, and 500+ local municipalities have placed strict limits, temporary bans, or complete stops on new data center projects.
The reason is simple: people think data centers are ugly, use too much electricity and water, don’t deserve tax breaks, and offer a small number of permanent jobs.
But given the economics and potential upside, companies aren’t going to stop trying to build data centers. Their offers have gotten more aggressive. Just look at some of the recent proposals. The OpenAI/Oracle project in Michigan promised to build a new fire department and community center complete with a pool, childcare facilities, and a lazy river. QTS in Alabama is offering $10,000 to every high school graduate from 2027 through 2030, and xAI has said it will renovate several schools in Memphis, including brand-new football and baseball fields.
AI companies call these “community benefit inducements” rather than bribes, but I am not sure there is a difference. And now these deals have crossed over to sports, with Texas Tech agreeing to a naming rights deal with Galaxy this summer.
The Texas Tech deal looks good on the surface. The school’s previous sponsor, AT&T, paid off its $21 million deal a decade early, so when the term officially expired this summer, Texas Tech landed a historic agreement with Galaxy. At 15 years and $75 million, not only is this one of the longest and largest naming rights deals in college sports history, but Texas Tech made room for it by removing the name of Clifford B. Jones, the school’s third president and the man responsible for the initial $100,000 gift that literally helped build the football stadium in 1947.
If that wasn’t crazy enough, it’s also only half the story. While everyone online keeps talking about how big a naming-rights deal this is for Texas Tech, the reality is that $75 million is peanuts compared to what Galaxy will get in return.
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