JMU's Sport and Recreation Management Fall 2011 Newsletter

Please click the image below for the James Madison University Sport and Recreation Management Fall 2011 Newsletter.

A big thanks to Dr. David Shonk and Michelle Isabelle for putting it all together.

"Sporting KC announces charitable naming rights deal with Livestrong"

From The Association of Luxury Suite Directors


Review by Jeff Giannasi in KIN 435

The newly rebranded Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer just named its new $200 million stadium LiveStrong Sporting Park. This is a marquee deal because LiveStrong aren’t paying a dime for the naming rights but rather the MLS franchise is giving the foundation a $7.5 million donation over the next six years. LiveStrong will also receive a percentage of the revenue that the stadium makes through out each season. Sporting Kansas City was searching for a corporate sponsor to buy the naming rights of the first soccer-specific stadium in the MLS but there were a lack of potential investors due to Kansas City’s small amount of large corporations and Fortune 500 companies. The sponsor ship with LiveStrong has become the centerpiece of the rebranded franchise and within 24 hours of the deal being announced, 400 season tickets were sold. Some other franchises believe that this type of “cause-marketing” will become a trend in sports while others don’t seem that these trends will catch on in different sports.

The marketing and sales of this sponsorship are groundbreaking to the sport marketing business. These two corporations made a partnership that pioneered the way that stadiums may market their naming rights. While most stadiums look toward large companies to pay for the naming rights, other franchises may try to partner with nonprofit foundations in order to establish a connection with the community at large. Sporting K.C. may have partnered with the best foundation because of LiveStrong’s previous involvement in sports that makes them a perfect fit into stadium naming rights especially in a rebranded franchise with a new state-of-art facility. While this new experimental partnership could work out for Livestrong and Sporting Kansas City, who knows how well it will work for other franchises who partner with nonprofit organizations and corporations.

---

Review by Rob Cushen in KIN 435

The article that we chose to review for this assignment is about the MLS soccer team Sporting KC and the naming rights to their stadium. This team is groundbreaking for several different reasons, the first of which is their name change from the Kansas City Wizards to Sporting KC. They felt this would play an instrumental role in raising popularity of MLS soccer in the US by taking on a name that closely resembled team names of European leagues. Along with this name change comes a revolutionary new stadium for MLS soccer and the sport’s fans. This stadium is the first of its kind because it is exclusive to soccer and is not shared with any other major sports team. Sporting KC is home to one of JMU’s alumni CJ Sapong who was selected tenth overall in the 2011 draft which is the highest JMU soccer pick ever. Last but certainly not least, is the name and the naming rights of this modern landmark. The naming rights for the stadium were donated to the Lance Armstrong Foundation and therefore it is named Livestrong Park.

Usually for professional sports the naming rights for a stadium draws some astronomical price tag but due to the lack of interest in MLS soccer an alternate route was taken. The idea behind donating the naming rights was to support finding a cure for testicular cancer while simultaneously increasing the attendance of Sporting KC. Since Kansas City is pretty much in the middle of nowhere and soccer’s popularity is not quite on par with maybe football, basketball, baseball, or hockey there wasn’t much of an advantage for a company to purchase the naming rights.

One of the major questions we asked in our presentation is whether giving away naming rights will catch on in soccer as well as other professional sports. The general consensus is that it would not be considered the norm among all sports but there was a good chance it would become more common in soccer. Livestrong Park is a cutting edge facility by soccer standards and sort of sets the bar for what other teams need to aspire to become. Sporting KC at Livestrong Park makes the future of professional soccer in the United States look promising which gives a new hope to the MLS and soccer fans alike.

"MLB postseason near ad sellout "

From the SportsBusiness Journal

Review by Phil Offman in KIN 435


TBS and Fox had no problems this year with selling out their ad space for the MLB postseason series. Fox and Turner Sports (TBS) has sold out their postseason inventory at a rate of more than 10 percent higher than in 2010 for the ALDS, NLDS and the NLCS. The only space left is if any of the series continue to the “if necessary” games where the networks anticipate no problem with selling the remaining space. As in the Postseason and most other major sporting events, the networks say the auto business represents their strongest sponsorship category. Chevrolet is sponsoring the pre and post game shows on Fox. Turner sold a sponsorship package to Audi where they will launch their “Achieving Greatness” theme. Dodge/ Chrysler is sponsoring the “On Deck” pregame show. Other sponsorships that Turner and Fox have given out are Captain Morgan, Allstate, Bank of America, Capital One, Liberty Mutual, State Farm and Travelers.

The NFL Lockout played a major role in Turner Sports and Fox gaining these sponsorships for the Postseason. With the NFL season left uncertain these companies had to make a choice to target the next biggest sporting event. Turner and Fox are making a smart decision with overloading their air space for the MLB Postseason. With teams like the Yankees and Phillies being in the playoffs, the ratings for the games will be up, giving the sponsorship companies a lot more exposure in bigger markets. The networks are planning their strategy around these big market teams going far through the playoffs. This isn’t the greatest way to market because of the chances that those teams do inevitably lose and ratings will surely drop. Both the TV networks hosting the game and the sponsorship companies will stand to mutually benefit from these deals.

---

Review by Ria Chionchio in KIN 435

The article we chose was “MLB postseason near ad sellout.” It discusses the use of auto company’s by TV networks to increase sports programming ad sales. According to Neil Mulcahy, executive VP of Fox’s sports sales, the marketplace for postseason baseball is strong. More interests have been sparked in several important categories with the auto business being strongest in demand.

The majority of Fox and Turner’s postseason inventory has sold out at rates more than 10% higher than last year and all the ad time for the first four games of the ALCS and World Series on Fox are sold out. Chevrolet will be the sponsor of Fox’s pregame and postgame show and Fox will also be telecasting the Red Sox-Yankees series if both teams advance to the championship. I think that hosting such a highly anticipated game is a smart move by Fox because both teams have a large, highly supportive fan base and if marketed correctly could generate a lot of revenue for the network as well as their sponsors. The ALDS, NLDS, and NLCS games on TBS have also achieved near sellout levels and are also improving at a quicker pace than last years numbers.

With the abundance of auto sponsors you can be assured to see a lot of car commercials with both Fox and TBS. Fox signed a new sponsorship package with Audi around the “Achieving Greatness” theme. Turner will have Captain Morgan sponsor TBS’s postgame show “Inside the MLB,” and Dodge/Chrysler will be sponsoring the pregame show “On Deck.” Other sponsors include companies in the fast food, financial, electronics, and home improvement categories. Network executives say that almost every MLB postseason achieves sell out ad time on television during the World Series. More time will be added if there is a need for more games and there is usually no problems selling those spaces.