Men's Basketball: Capital Classic Has New Sponsor
December 22, 2006 11:30 AM | General
December 22, 2006
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Chesapeake Energy Corporation announced today that it has entered a partnership with Marshall University and West Virginia University to sponsor the annual men’s and women’s basketball games in Charleston.
A five-year partnership with Chesapeake Energy begins on January 24 with this year’s games in Charleston. The series will be called the Chesapeake Energy Capital Classic.
“We are excited to enter into this partnership with West Virginia’s two Division I universities,” said Scott Rotruck, Chesapeake’s director of corporate development. “We are proud to support activities that are important to our employees and the people in communities where we work. We have many graduates of both West Virginia University and Marshall University and they are eager to see Chesapeake Energy play such a large role in the annual basketball game between the two schools. We believe this partnership demonstrates our commitment to the state of West Virginia and to higher education.”
The two schools started playing annually in Charleston during the 1991-92 season. This will be the 16th consecutive meeting between the two schools in Charleston.
“The West Virginia-Marshall series in Charleston is a great event every year,” said WVU Director of Athletics Ed Pastilong. “We’re pleased to have Chesapeake Energy as our new sponsor. Fans from both schools look forward to this event every year and the great atmosphere in the Charleston Civic Center.”
“I think it is great that Chesapeake Energy has stepped up as the title sponsor of the Marshall-West Virginia basketball series in Charleston,” Marshall University Director of Athletics Bob Marcum said. “West Virginia is one of the nation’s leading producers of natural gas and Chesapeake Energy is at the forefront of the industry, so it is fitting that they would sponsor this annual event that features two great West Virginia universities.”
Chesapeake Energy Corporation is the third largest independent producer of natural gas in the United States and the nation’s most active driller of new natural gas wells. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, the company’s operations are focused on exploratory and developmental drilling and corporate and property acquisitions in the Mid-Continent, Permian Basin, South Texas, Texas Gulf Coast, Barnett Shale, Arkansas-Louisiana-Texas and Appalachian Basin regions of the United States.
