MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It took athletic director Red Brown more than a decade to get the WVU Coliseum constructed in 1970. 

For 55 years, it has operated under the same name. Today, it has taken current AD Wren Baker less than three years to give it a new one – Hope.

Yesterday, West Virginia University, its Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and Gold & Blue Enterprises announced a historic 10-year partnership with Hope Gas to rename its oldest athletic venue.

An official announcement, streamed live on the Hope Gas Facebook page, was made in the Clark Mountaineer Club earlier today with Hope Gas president and CEO Morgan O'Brien, West Virginia University president Michael T. Benson and Baker on hand for the announcement.

"This is an investment in a University on the rise," Benson said. "We are going places."

The new name, Hope Coliseum, will take some getting used to, for sure, but its impact is transformative for an athletics department aggressively trying to keep pace in an ever-changing collegiate landscape.

Earlier this summer, Baker, in a three-part series on WVUsports.com, described in great detail the significant financial headwinds facing Mountaineer Athletics. As part of the $2.8 billion NCAA vs. House class action antitrust lawsuit that was settled last June, Athletics began allocating $20.5 million per year in direct compensation to its student-athletes on July 1.

This amount will increase by 4% annually over the next 10 years.

Additionally, back pay must be awarded to former student-athletes who competed between 2016 and 2024 and did not receive Name, Image and Likeness compensation.

That's just one revenue bucket that must be continually filled.

There are many others.

Baker has stated numerous times his desire in keeping Athletics' funding in line with its peers in the Big 12. He eloquently described the issues confronting the Mountain State's only power conference institution and the obstacles ahead, such as a lack of premium seating at Milan Puskar Stadium and the Coliseum.

In the short time Baker has been in the AD chair, his department has increased athletic revenue by 5 to 6% annually, and his research concluded that, relative to what WVU Athletics currently generates in terms of parking, ticketing, media rights and fundraising, the department's performance has been on par or ahead of many of its peers.

Another area where Baker has made noticeable headway is with the WVU Board of Governors, which now includes former director of athletics Oliver Luck. Earlier this month, the organization unanimously approved a formal resolution in support of WVU Athletics, calling for the "development of a financial plan that positions the University in the top funding tier among Big 12 institutions, while simultaneously strengthening the University's paramount core mission."

That's a huge vote of confidence for Baker's department, and, naturally, it's going to require a major commitment from everyone.

Presently, West Virginia has consistently ranked near the bottom of the Big 12 in overall funding and support. According to published reports, the Group of 5 programs that were recently added to the conference are being subsidized by as much as $40 million per year, and if that amount continues, combining that with their future Big 12 media rights distributions means their athletic budgets will easily surpass WVU's as things stand right now.

Baker has had some hard conversations with campus leadership about the unequal playing field Mountaineer athletics has been required to navigate through the years, and there are clear signs those conversations are making an impact.

The Board of Governors' recent resolution was a significant first step toward securing Mountaineer Athletics' future.

The renaming of WVU Coliseum to Hope Coliseum is another. According to yesterday's press release announcing the partnership, it covers naming rights, sponsorships and future donations to WVU Athletics and will solidify the Coliseum's status for years to come.

The commitment from Hope Gas will generate a substantial new annual revenue stream for the department and its multimedia rights partner, Mountaineer Sports Properties, which is vital in keeping athletics on par with its peers.

"It is critical to develop new revenue streams and to diversify," Baker said. "We wanted a company that shares our values, and I knew this was the perfect one."

"We are excited about the future of West Virginia, that's why we are investing all of this money here," O'Brien added. "The real magic is we want to make sure kids in West Virginia see that their future can be here. They can do all the amazing things they dream about, and they don't have to leave West Virginia. They can stay here.

"Putting the name of Hope on this Coliseum really helps make this a reality of kids not having to leave West Virginia, and that, to me, is the real definition of hope."

Millions of spectators, thousands of players and hundreds of coaches have walked through the Coliseum doors since its official dedication on Dec. 1, 1970, against Colgate.

In 1972, the Coliseum was the host venue for the NCAA Men's Basketball East Regional. Numerous conference tournament championship games, an NCAA rifle championship, NCAA gymnastics regionals, a women's basketball regional, ESPN College GameDays, an NBA exhibition game, the Harlem Globetrotters, high school basketball tournaments, job fairs, rock concerts and even the Ice Capades have been a part of the venue's long history.

That was Red Brown's "hope" decades ago when each year at the end of the athletic season, while submitting his annual report to WVU's central administration, he always included a couple of paragraphs about the need for a new basketball arena and its potential to the community at-large.

It wasn't just a basketball facility he was seeking, but something unique for its time that could represent a symbol of hope for Mountaineer fans everywhere.

Brown was sitting in his office at the old football stadium with basketball coach Bucky Waters on a Saturday afternoon in the fall of 1967 when the announcement was made that funding had been approved for a new basketball arena.

Afterward, Waters recalled Brown being moved to tears when he heard the news.

Now 58 years later, the iconic Coliseum continues on under a new name, Hope Coliseum, thanks to this historic partnership with Hope Gas.

I know Red Brown would have approved!