| • | Dr Pepper Inks Title Sponsorship For First ACC Championship Football Game |
| • | McDonald’s Today Unveils $40M Global Expansion Of NBA Sponsorship |
| • | Nextel Today Announces Three-Year Sponsorship Agreement With Nationals |
| • | Nikon To Title Sponsor FanFoto As Part Of New Red Sox Sponsorship Deal |
| • | MLB Productions Today Inks Two Three-Year DVD Distribution Deals |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/Closing Stat |
DR PEPPER INKS TITLE SPONSORSHIP FOR NEW ACC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Dr Pepper, the title sponsor of the SEC and Big 12 conference football championship games, today announced an agreement with ABC Sports and the ACC to title sponsor the conference’s first-ever college football championship game, to be aired December 3, 2005, on ABC. Dr Pepper will advertise during ACC, Big 12 and SEC regular-season games on the ABC and ESPN family of networks, while also conducting national consumer promotion sweepstakes including opportunities to win $1M during an on-field event at the title games (Cadbury Schweppes).
MCDONALD’S TODAY ANNOUNCES $40M GLOBAL EXPANSION OF NBA SPONSORSHIP
McDonald’s and the NBA today announced a global expansion of their corporate partnership, under which McDonald’s will support NBA outreach programs, such as Basketball Without Borders, on four continents (NBA). AD AGE cites sources as saying that the deal is worth about $40M (AD AGE, 4/25 issue).
NEXTEL ANNOUNCES THREE-YEAR SPONSORSHIP DEAL WITH THE NATIONALS
Nextel announced today a three-year marketing partnership with the Nationals, making Nextel the team’s official wireless provider. Nextel receives marketing rights, signage behind home plate in RFK Stadium, corporate hospitality, player appearances and cross-promotional opportunities. In addition, each pitching change will feature the Nextel “Call to the Bullpen.” To kick off the agreement, the Nextel Racing Experience, a full-motion stock-car racing simulator, will be at RFK today through Wednesday (Nextel).
NIKON TODAY ENTERS INTO SPONSORSHIP DEAL WITH THE RED SOX
Nikon today announced it has been named the official camera of the Red Sox in a deal that includes radio sponsorship on WEEI-AM, signage throughout Fenway Park and title sponsorship of FanFoto. Nikon will also create the Nikon Darkroom in Fenway, which will act as a ‘locker room’ for all professional photographers at home games (Nikon).
MLB PRODUCTIONS REACHES TWO MULTI-YEAR DVD DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENTS
 |
| "Dodger Blue: The
Championship Years" |
MLB Productions announced today separate three-year DVD distribution agreements with Shout Factory and A&E Home Video. Shout Factory becomes the official DVD distributor for new MLBP content, and will distribute at least four titles during each year of the agreement, one of which will be the annual World Series film. A&E Home Video will have exclusive rights to MLBP DVD and home video archives for the creation of collector’s edition box sets. A&E will also distribute at least four titles per year through its home video distribution partner, New Video Group (MLBP).
Shout Factory’s first release will be “Dodger Blue: The Championship Years,” a DVD thatcelebrates the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers' first World Series championship and highlights championship seasons, players and moments throughout the club's history. The DVD hits retail on May 17 (Shout Factory).
BUZZER BEATERS
NFL.com set a three-day NFL Draft weekend record of 6 million unique visitors, up 22% from last year’s 4.9 million (NFL).
Reebok Int’l today announced that its net income for Q1 ’05 was $43M, or $0.70 per share, up from $41M, or $0.63 per share, in the year-ago period. Sales rose 11% to $925M. U.S. Sales were up 8%, while international sales increased 17%. Reebok said that last year’s purchase of The Hockey Company boosted its sales, but profits “were hurt in part because of” the NHL lockout (REUTERS, 4/25).
Sky Box Sport Scenes today announced it has signed a multi-year licensing agreement with MLB Properties to develop, manufacture, market and distribute high-resolution photomurals of MLB ballparks. The deal includes rights to past and present ballparks, as well as the World Series and All-Star Game (Sky Box Sport Scenes).
A jury today awarded $700,000 in compensatory damages to Christian Presley and Alan Cheeks, who were beaten up by Jose Canseco and his twin brother, Ozzie, at a Miami Beach nightclub in ’01. The jury also “left open the possibility of punitive damages” (AP, 4/25).
The British PGA today appointed Beverly Lewis as its first female captain in its 104-year history (AP, 4/25).
TransWorld Media today announced that its surfing magazine, TransWorld Surf, has partnered with Surfline, allowing transworldsurf.com visitors to have free access to Surfline’s network of nearly 100 beach Web cams, surf reports and travel information in addition to TransWorld Surf editorial content (TransWorld Media).
CHANNEL SURFING
ESPN will air regional coverage of MLB: Mets-Braves or Phillies-Nationals at 7:00pm ET.
ESPN2 will air “Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Blame … Kobe Bryant For the Breakup Of The Lakers” at 8:30pm ET.
ESPN2 will air “Who’s Number 1?: Game Winners” at 9:00pm ET.
TNT will air Pacers-Celtics at 7:00pm ET and Rockets-Mavericks at 9:30pm.
Football HOFer Lawrence Taylor will appear on CNBC’s “The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch” at 10:00pm ET.
Red Wings D Chris Chelios will appear on MTV’s “Trippin’” at 10:30pm ET.
49ers coach Mike Nolan and White Sox C A.J. Pierzynski will appear on “BDSSP.”
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight’s headline guests on the following talk shows:
| “Late Show” | Farrah Fawcett |
| “The Tonight Show” | Noah Wyle |
| “The Late Late Show” | Eryka Badu |
| “Late Night” | Brooke Shields |
| “Jimmy Kimmel Live” | Wilmer Valderama |
TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
The TAMPA TRIBUNE’s Alan Snel writes that D’Rays Managing General Partner Vincent Naimoli has “become the poster boy for the businessman as public relations nightmare. … Public relations and sports marketing experts say the publicity around Naimoli’s public black eyes are affecting the team’s bottom line. Translation: People are not coming to the ballpark” (TAMPA TRIBUNE). Meanwhile, the ORLANDO SENTINEL’s David Whitley writes, “Somebody needs to stop Naimoli before he completely flushes baseball down the toilet in Tampa Bay” (ORLANDO SENTINEL).
The Newark STAR-LEDGER’s Brad Parks writes, “Through 176 games last year, [MLB] was [averaging] 30,914 fans. Through 176 games this year, [MLB] is averaging … 30,914 fans. Don’t go reaching for the calculator. We’ve done the math for you: The impact of steroids is the first known object in the universe to achieve absolute zero. What was called ‘baseball’s Watergate’ turns out to be nothing more than water under the bridge” (Newark STAR-LEDGER).
The AP’s Tim Dahlberg writes of the NBA playoffs without the Lakers or LeBron James: “Away from the 16 cities that still have a stake in the outcome, it’s going to be a tough sell to get people to tune in. That’s assuming, of course, that they know which of the three networks airing the playoffs are carrying the games” (AP).
See the Articles of Interest section for more sports business-related links.
CLOSING STAT: N.Y. TIMES BESTSELLING NONFICTION
The following presents best selling nonfiction books for the week ending April 16 (NYTIMES.com, 4/25):
| N.Y. TIMES BESTSELLING NONFICTION |
| RK | HARDCOVER NONFICTION |
| 1) | MY LIFE SO FAR, Jane Fonda (Random House) |
| 2) | BLINK, Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown) |
| 3) | THE WORLD IS FLAT, Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) |
| 4) | ON BULL----, Harry G. Frankfurt (Princeton University) |
| 5) | FREAKONOMICS, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (Morrow) |
| 6) | LIBERALISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER, Michael Savage (Nelson Current/Thomas Nelson) |
| 7) | ONE SOLDIER'S STORY, Bob Dole (HarperCollins) |
| 8) | THREE NIGHTS IN AUGUST, Buzz Bissinger (Houghton Mifflin) |
| 9) | GARLIC AND SAPPHIRES, Ruth Reichl (Penguin) |
| 10) | A DEADLY GAME, Catherine Crier with Cole Thompson (ReganBooks, Harper Collins) |
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
editorial@sportsbusinessdaily.com
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