"NBA and Sprint connect for deal"

From the Sports Business Journal

Review by Frank Ramunni in KIN 332 (Section 2)

In a recent article written the week of September 5, 2011 in Sports Business Journal it was determined that the National Basketball Association and Sprint Mobile have come to an agreement on a four year sponsorship deal. The deal was successfully completed due to the NBA and T-Mobile terminating their once existing contract. The new sponsorship deal was kept quiet to many most likely because of the current lockout the league is in. One of the more impressive parts of this deal is the price, a $45 million rights fee and a total agreement of $250 million, including media commitments and other miscellaneous agreements. Also, a lot of the talking and meeting about this agreement was happening during the 2011 NBA finals and T-Mobile lost simply because they offered substantially less than Sprint, 15-20 % less. In fact, another interesting part of this deal was that Metro PCS almost out bid Sprint to make a deal happen with the NBA.

In my opinion, I feel that it is not going to be an easy hill to climb for Sprint because of T-Mobile’s apparent success with their marketing and advertising. For many years, I would find myself laughing at Charles Barkley and Dwayne Wade T-Mobile commercials and they obviously must have made tons of money through their advertising for the company because they had such a long and thorough contract with the NBA. I also feel that the aspect of this contract that has the potential to make Sprint even more money is the fact that they are coming out with the iPhone. The iPhone will enable the use of many downloadable applications that Sprint will be linked to the NBA with. All in all, I think the deal that Sprint Mobile and the NBA have come to have the potential and opportunities to do big things and make large strides in the business marketing and advertising departments.

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Review by Jeff Wilkins in KIN 332 (Section 2)

For my article review, I decided to pick out an article from the Sports Business Daily Journal. In the Sports Business Daily Journal, I chose the article titled “NBA and Sprint Connect for Deal.” In the article, staff writer John Lombardo discusses how Sprint came to an agreement of $250 million dollars and teamed up to sponsor the NBA. As we all know, the NBA is going through a lockout and Sprint quietly came to an agreement with the league.

Sprint and the NBA came to an agreement of $45 million for their rights fee agreeing to a four year sponsorship. The $45 million rights fee was one of the largest ever collected by the league. The total value came out to $250 million due to media commitments and contractual requirements. Before talking to Sprint, the NBA had been talking to AT&T during the finals in June but couldn’t come to an agreement. The new mobile network, MetroPCS, had been competing with Sprint in regards to who would sign with the NBA but Sprint had come out as the leader paying 15-20% more than the NBA wireless sponsor T-Mobile had been paying. T-Mobile had been the league’s most active sponsor over the past six years and now Sprint will be taking over.

When talking about the marketing and sports marketing implications from the following article, Sprint will be marketing its new iPhone coming out in October in hopes that it will be able to explode with sales due to the fact that the NBA plans to launch in early November. Through the NBA, Sprint will be able to market its 4G wireless internet service and build brand awareness to viewers and people within the NBA. Sprint hasn’t been a top-level sponsor since losing NFL rights after the 2009 season. They are hoping to be able to build up their network through the NBA and increase sales as the season moves on.