Arizona Bowl announces Snoop Dogg sponsorship, bails on Barstool branding

Arizona Stadium's bowl game is getting a facelift through a new title partnership and a rebrand.

Tucson will now play host to the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl. The legendary West Coast rap icon announced on Monday, May 6, that the Arizona Bowl would be partnering with his beverage company co-owned by Dr. Dre called Gin & Juice.

The full official name is a mouthful: the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl presented by Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop. However, it's a much-needed change after spending three years and playing two games under a naming rights deal with the ever-controversial Barstool Sports.

Barstool Sports, owned by David Portnoy, found itself in hot water with the Pima County Board of Supervisors after some extremely inflammatory — and disgusting, frankly — remarks from 2010 about thinner women in skinny jeans "deserving" to be raped. Portnoy's comments coming to light caused $40,000 in county funding to be pulled from the event.

Complications with the COVID-19 pandemic caused the game to be canceled in its entirety in 2021. With the Barstool partnership, the Arizona Bowl saw its two lowest attendance numbers since its inaugural season in 2015. 2022 was the only time outside of 2015 to see fewer than 30,000 attendants, and only about 30,500 showed up last year. The Arizona Bowl's branding needed a refresh, and Snoop Dogg has been tapped as the man to do it.