The Homa Files

Excerpted from the New York Times, “Stadium Sponsorship Grows to New Levels”, by Stephanie Clifford, December 10, 2008

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Along with the usual signs from advertisers, the new Indianapolis Colts stadium features a hallway filled with dishwashers, refrigerators and washing machines, brought to football fans by the retailer HH Gregg, which is based in Indianapolis.

It is the latest frontier in stadium sponsorship, showing how far sports teams are willing to go to attract marketing dollars.

At the stadium, there are gasoline pumps in the north gate area, sponsored by Lucas Oil, airplane seats in the AirTran Airways food court in the northwest section and cars in the northeast corner, sponsored by Chevrolet. The Indiana law firm of Baker & Daniels sponsors the club lounges at the western end of the stadium, and Advantage Health Solutions, a medical plan, sponsors the club lounges at the eastern end. Sprint sponsors the east gate, Huntington Bank the west, and Hhgregg the south.

“In today’s world of a very crowded advertising marketplace, it’s very important for facilities to provide the brands and companies they’re associating with a lot more than just signs and tickets, but there is a fine balance of not having it be so overcommercialized that it turns the consumer off from your brand.”

That wem to be a legitmate concern in the new Colts stadium’s “appliance zone” .

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The New York Yankees, New York Mets and Minnesota Twins are among teams offering high-profile sponsorship deals at their new stadiums.

A Mets sponsorship has drawn particular attention. The team sold the field’s naming rights to Citigroup for $400 million over 20 years — and Citigroup is currently getting $300 billion in backing and investments from the federal government. Two New York city council members pointedly suggested that Citi Field be renamed Citi/Taxpayer Field.

Edit by DAF

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Full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/business/media/11adco.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print

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This entry was posted on January 27, 2009 at 6:59 am and is filed under Sports Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.