Advertising is a huge part of sports now, more than it ever has been. This advertising includes, not only the actual advertising/commercials you see during sporting events, but also stadium names, team names, background advertising during games, college bowl game names, athlete endorsements, etc... I'll just focus mainly on corporate sponsors this time around.
I want to start by talking about stadium names. Pink Taco, an Arizona restaurant chain offered the Arizona Cardinals a ten year - $30 million deal to name the new Arizona stadium after them, unfortunately to the sadness of us all who love a good joke, the Cardinals turned it down. Here's the article itself if you would like to look at it.
This is nothing new. There are many stadiums and arenas named after companies. Just in MLB, NBA, and the NFL there are 58 teams with stadiums/arenas named after corporate sponsors. Just look at Boston sports: the Patriots play at Gillette stadium and the Celtics and Bruins play at TD Banknorth Garden (formerly Fleet Center). There are very few teams remaining that don't have a corporate sponsor. Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium are rarities now. Some companies are taking it a step further and naming the teams after themselves. This year the New York Metrostars changed their name to the New York Red Bulls, and their logo now is basically the Red Bull logo. This isn't a completely new idea. Founded in 1919, the Green Bay Packers were so named after the Indian Packing Company. It's an easy way for the team to be supported and it's an easy way for a company to increase its brand strength. If you are an MLS fan, especially a New York fan (which I'm sure no one in our class is), then you're constantly seeing the Red Bulls logo. Imagine walking through the streets of Boston, but instead of everyone having a hat with a "B" on it, you're seeing Sam Adams on everyone's hat and jersey because Boston signed a contract with the Boston Beer Company to become the Boston Lagers (Boston Beers was too easy). Now, it's probably not going to happen anytime soon, but it is an interesting concept. Almost every stadium and arena is named after a corporate sponsor now, the team names are next. Worldwide, this has already caught on. A lot of the Japanese professional teams are named after companies. In my native Ukraine, where there isn't much sports related revenue, almost every team has turned to a corporate sponsor already. This is quickly catching on with semi-pro and minor league teams in the United States also. I honestly believe that eventually more professional teams will go down that route as well.
What does this mean for brands? Well if the Denver Nuggets who already play at the Pepsi Center go ahead and name themselves Denver Pepsi after a huge offer by Pepsi, I wouldn't be that surprised. It gets your brand name out there, it strengthens it for the large part, and it increases brand awareness enormously. If you were associated with a great team, let's say the Yankees were actually the New York Times (just giving an example), imagine how much brand value the actual NY Times newspaper would have. I guess you can take your chance and the team named after you doesn't do as well, well it still gets your name mentioned every night on Sportscenter and how many companies can say that? It is an easy means to success as far as I'm concerned, but the teams don't want to sell out, at least not until the companies up their offers.
And may-be in a few years the Arizona Cardinals will accept the deal and then just may-be they will become the Phoenix Pink Tacos that play in Pink Taco Stadium. I know I'm excited for that moment. How can anyone not root for them?
Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. There will be a part 2 to this, I promise. For now, I would greatly appreciate your feedback on this topic.
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Daniil