How sports became central to this Florida bank’s identity

According to Amerant Bancorp Chairman and CEO Jerry Plush, the company had an “identity crisis” when he arrived in February 2021. 

Established in 1979 as a subsidiary of Venezuela-based Mercantil Servicios Financieros, the Coral Gables, Florida-based Amerant had been spun off as an independent bank in August 2018, announcing plans to rebrand a few months later. By 2021, it had a new name, Amerant, but still lacked name recognition, Plush said. 

“I told people we were the best-kept secret in South Florida — which for a bank is not a good thing,” Plush said in an interview. “You’re in a business where awareness is a big, big part of the game.”

For Plush, ultimately, the solution proved simple: partnering with South Florida sports franchises. Lots of them. “I seized on this coming in. I felt aligning ourselves with strong brands was going to significantly raise our brand awareness.”

Banks, to be sure, are active in athletic partnerships. In an April 2024 report, Sponsor United, a firm that provides sports marketing data and insights, said financial brands “have steadily come to dominate” the stadium naming rights segment, accounting for about 35% of deals. 

The trend shows no sign of slowing. In September, the $201 billion-asset Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio, struck a 20-year deal to put its name on the Cleveland Browns’ stadium. The $4.7 billion-asset, Herndon, Virginia-based Northwest Federal Credit Union captured the naming rights for the Washington Commanders’ stadium. Both of those franchises play in the National Football League, the most popular U.S. sports league, by viewership.

While the $10.4 billion-asset Amerant hasn’t yet established a football partnership, it’s well represented in Major League Baseball, with ties to both the Tampa Rays and Miami Marlins. Amerant is also the official bank of the National Basketball Association’s Miami Heat. In the National Hockey League, Amerant owns naming rights to the Florida Panthers home venue, the Amerant Bank Arena. It also  serves as the Panthers’ official bank. 

Amerant’s newest partnership, announced in August, is with Fort Lauderdale United FC. Amerant serves as official bank of Fort Lauderdale United, South Florida’s only professional women’s soccer team.  

Few banks Amerant’s size have as many relationships with major sports teams. Plush admitted he has been labeled “sports crazy” but added there’s a definite strategy behind all the activity. 

“We have the halo effect of being able to align with these organizations that resonate across the state,” Plush said. “We have the good fortune of having a great relationship with the two baseball teams in the state. We have naming rights to one of the 30 [National Hockey League] arenas. The see-and-be-seen crowd that goes to the Amerant Lounge and all the Amerant branding where the Heat play — it’s the same thing at the Amerant Vault at Amerant Bank Arena — It’s a huge differentiator. People see it as a commitment to Florida.”

Amerant has grown its assets by 37% since the end of 2020, boosting its share of Miami’s $330 billion deposit market from 1.98% to 2.2% in the same span. Plush is convinced Amerant’s sports partnerships have played an outsized role in its growth. 

“There’s no question,” Plushs said. ” The awareness alone has been worth it.”

While the impact of sports partnerships can be difficult to quantify, they “get the [partner’s] name out there and create top-of-mind visibility,” Matthew A. Gilbert, a marketing professor at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina, said in an interview. “That’s an important goal of marketing.”

“People will trust a brand they don’t know if they’ve heard of it,” Gilbert said. “That’s one benefit from a stadium sponsorship or a partnership with an athletic team…When you have your name on a building, or you’re partnering with an athlete, your name is out there.”

Beyond name recognition, sports partnerships have been a fertile source of referrals and business development. “I can tell you, I go to a Panthers game, I go to a Heat game, there isn’t a game I walk out of where I haven’t handed out a lot of business cards or tapped my iPhone with somebody’s iPhone,” Plush said. “They’re touch points…I think the access you get from having the private suites, the Amerant Vault at Amerant Bank Arena, the Amerant Lounge at the Heat games — It’s amazing the contacts you can get.”

Games “create a very unique and compelling context in which to do business,” Gilbert said. “If you purchase the naming rights to a building, you will obviously have some kind of high-end suite with great views. It creates a very memorable experience that makes an impression. That, plus knowing the building is named after that company, communicates credibility and stability.”

Now, Plush is using sports partnerships to help drive Amerant’s expansion plans. Major League Baseball’s Tampa Rays named Amerant its official bank in July, about two months after Amerant cut the ribbon on its first Tampa-area branch in the city’s bustling Westshore commercial district. “Our view was what better way to get well-known in the Tampa marketplace,” Plush said. 

Amerant made news in April by announcing the sale of its six Houston-area branches. Plush likened the move to “doubling down” on its growing  South Florida presence. “It’s challenging to think we can get the same brand awareness and recognition,” Plush said. “We Loved Texas. We loved Houston. We just think it makes better business sense to be focused here.”

In a similar way, Amerant’s sports partnerships are intended to highlight its local identity, according to Plush. “Whether you’re here in Florida or internationally, people know who the Miami Heat are,” Plush said. “To be the official bank of the Miami Heat and to align ourselves with such a well-known brand elevates our awareness. The same thing is true when you think about the Florida Panthers, Miami Marlins, and Tampa Bay Rays.”

“Any kind of investment in the community where there’s visibility but also sincerity is a great demonstrative act,” Gilbert said. “It’s literally putting your money where your mouth is. It’s about making a difference and really showing that you’re part of the community, not just taking a part of the community.”