Iowa Events Center officials announced today that the downtown entertainment venue Wells Fargo Arena will be renamed the Casey’s Center.

Ankeny-based Casey’s General Stores was awarded naming rights for the 17,000-seat arena following about eight months of talks with Polk County and Oak View Group, the operators of the Iowa Events Center, which includes the arena.

Financial arrangements of the 10-year agreement were not immediately available.

The move brings to an end a 20-year agreement with Wells Fargo. That agreement expires on June 30, 2025. The arena will become the Casey’s Center on July 1, 2025.

This comes after earlier announcements that Wells Fargo would remove its name from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia in 2025 and end its relationship with the PGA’s Charlotte championship after this year.

While the change in name was announced today, it will become official with approval by the Polk County Board of Supervisors at its meeting on Tuesday.

Darren Rebelez, Casey’s president and CEO, said the company was excited to pursue naming rights for the arena — the first such venture for the company — saying the arena is the “center of attention for so many great events.”

“We knew that everybody comes to this events center to see those events, and we couldn’t think about a more meaningful relationship for us to have than to have our name on this and create that link with the entire community,” he said.

Having the arena named after Casey’s will help elevate the company in the community and throughout Iowa, where it has more than 550 stores and 11,000 employees.

“We’ve been a very humble company for a very long time, but we thought of this as an opportunity to elevate the brand, spread the word in a more meaningful way and always be top of mind for everybody that comes to the Casey’s Center,” Rebelez said.

Besides changing signage inside and outside the arena, Casey’s will paint the roof of the arena with the Casey’s logo. Casey’s will also bring some of its food products, including its pizza and breakfast pizza, to the arena, he said.

Chris Connolly, general manager of the Oak View Group, said Casey’s is a good fit for naming the arena.

“Casey’s is known; everybody knows Casey’s,” he said.

Connolly said bringing in Casey’s and its products will also help elevate services offered by the arena.

“I think it’s a great deal all around,” he said.

The painting of the roof is new for Wells Fargo, Connolly said.

“Also the signage inside and outside the arena will convert to Casey’s, and that’s a lot and that’s part of the naming rights deal,” he said. “This is something separate that we’ve never had. We’ve never had signage on top of the roof before. It’s something Casey’s was very interested in and that will be a new aspect to this deal.”

Connolly said Casey’s reached out almost immediately after Wells Fargo opted not to renew its agreement.

He said maybe a handful of other companies reached out “after-the-fact,” but that “we were far enough down the road with Casey’s and feeling very positive about it,” that other offers weren’t considered.

Financial details of the agreement with Casey’s will be made public at a later date, Connolly said.
Angela Connolly, chair of the Polk County Board of Supervisors, said in a news release issued after the announcement that the county “takes pride in the impressive accomplishments of the Iowa Events Center and arena over the past 20 years and the substantial impact it has had on our community.”

She said the county is “thrilled” to partner with Casey’s on the arena.

“They are a homegrown company with a footprint in all corners of our state,” she said in the release. “Their reputation for being a dedicated community partner is well known and exactly what we were hoping for in our next naming partner.”

Connolly announced the name change during the event, saying, “We are thrilled to announce Casey’s General Store as a new naming partner.”

“We found in our new partner one with a deep history in the state of Iowa, one with a loyal following with its customers and is engrained in communities in the state and beyond,” she said during the event.

Wells Fargo did not address the reasons behind its decision not to pursue renewing its naming contract for the arena but released a statement that says the company “remains committed to this community.”

In recent years, the company has consolidated many of its Central Iowa workers to its Jordan Creek campus in West Des Moines and laid off hundreds of employees since 2022.

“The area continues to be a major center of employment for the company, and we will continue generously supporting local charitable causes,” the statement read. “We would like to thank Polk County leaders and their representatives, the Oak View Group, for their partnership and professionalism throughout the process.