Comments on: Stadium Branding = Big Bucks

By: Citigroup Can’t Afford Employees but Mets Stadium Sponsorship is Good Investment

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:05:41 +0000

[...] (NYSE: C) is busy mounting branded signage on the new Mets ballpark, Citi Field, as part of its 20-year $400 million agreement to brand the new stadium with the Citigroup name. At the same time, Citigroup is struggling [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:54:16 +0000

I highly dislike areas with corporate branded names, it makes the stadiums/etc. sound so empty and sterile.

WTF happened to heritage? geez.

By: Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:47:10 +0000

Prescott,

Have I told you I love how you write? You have an awesome way with words!

And by the way, I still call it the Brendan Byrne Arena. I refuse to call it Continental Airlines Arena! :) Actually, I just say “the Meadowlands”. It’s another way you can tell I’m from New Jersey no matter where I move. It’s like calling the beach, “the shore”. And I say “Nork”, not “New-ark”. My parents grew up in Newark, so some of the accent is ingrained in me. :)

By: Prescott Perez-Fox

Prescott Perez-Fox — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:07:22 +0000

PS, in Europe, the entire league will have a sponsor (e.g. the Barclay’s Premiership, the Coca-Cola League) and this is similar to how Nascar has sponsors for the entire circuit, like the Nextel Cup. Golf tournaments can be sponsored by a certain company, like the Buick Invitational, but generally it’s not so intensive for Golf or Tennis, perhaps because they are very international games.

By: Prescott Perez-Fox

Prescott Perez-Fox — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:02:16 +0000

I agree with Susan, this shit has gotten out of hand with the sums of cash they command for some something ultimately doesn’t produce a product and is very nebulous when it comes to translating into a sales bump.

It will be interesting to see if the sponsor of the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium is something Texas-related. It would be good branding for a company like Ford, that makes pickup trucks, but it might seems strange for an East-coast investment bank to get dirty in the Texas mud. Perhaps money isn’t the sole criteria.

Stadium naming is an unfortunate side effect of the slashing of corporate taxes during the 80s. States and Cities used to have more funds available, so they were able to dedicate more to sports and recreation on the large scale. The same way your local town provides little league and a parks dept. But with the absence of that big cash, pro sports had to turn to corporate big-shots. It’s especially annoying when a stadium that was once named for someone important, like a dead former governor, gets swapped for some airline. (as happened in NJ)

The same thing happened in Europe except they kept the stadium names (due largely to heritage). Instead, they decided to have “shirt sponsors”, and sell the rights to provide a logo on the players actual jerseys. Which is more perverse? An Orwelian-sounding stadium name (3Com park, for example) or having millions of children serve as walking ads for a foreign airline? That one’s up to you.

I blogged about this long ago:
http://www.perezfox.com/2007/04/18/no-logo-sort-of/