MLB "is close to signing" a $100M deal with Visa and
MBNA, "as long as baseball can guarantee a Visa ad claim
that future World Series 'won't take American Express,'"
according to Terry Lefton of BRANDWEEK. The deal is
"pending the ironing out of financial details," allowing
Visa to work the sponsorship into its longtime ad campaign.
Lefton notes that "delivering that claim to Visa and its
agency, BBDO, N.Y., would be a coup," considering that the
NFL, to which MBNA and Visa pay the "biggest" rights fees,
was not able to extend anything beyond "the preferred card"
of the NFL. A marketer "familiar with the negotiations"
said, "That's a deal breaker if baseball can't deliver it."
One MLB exec: "We haven't closed it out yet, but we're
confident we can offer them that claim" (BRANDWEEK, 3/24).
CAN THEY LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT? AmEx currently has two
deals with MLB teams: AmEx Financial Advisors has a deal
with the Metrodome in Minneapolis and the Yankees have an
AmEx association through their overall deal with MSG.
Another "sticking point" according to another marketer
familiar with the deal is whether MLB would start to accept
credit cards for World Series tickets, typically sold on a
cash-only basis (BRANDWEEK, 3/24 issue).
