An analysis by N.Y. City Comptroller Alan Hevesi
reported that Games One and Two of the World Series "have
added" $31M to the city economy, according to Katia Hetter
of NEWSDAY. The two games played in N.Y. for the AL
Division Series were worth $11.8M to the city and the three
N.Y. games played during the ALCS were worth about $24.3M.
Dollars spent on tickets, concessions, broadcasting fees,
bars, hotels and restaurants, along with the respending of
those dollars, all contribute to the revenues. Hevesi, on
the World Series: "As a New Yorker, I'm rooting for a
Yankees sweep. As comptroller, I'm rooting for a Yankee win
in the seventh game" (NEWSDAY, 10/20).
CREDIT DUE: BRANDWEEK's Terry Lefton reports that both
MasterCard's (MC) one-year-old sponsorship of MLB and Visa's
local sponsorships of 17 of the 30 MLB teams "have proved to
be big hitters for the leading credit card brands." MC
Senior VP/U.S. Marketing Nick Utton: "Everybody wants to own
baseball now and we feel like we have a big piece of it from
a sponsorship perspective." Visa Exec VP/Member Relations
Fran Schall: "Loyalty lies at the team level, and we were
trying to tie into that affinity which translates into much
higher card usage." Utton said that MC, which has also
signed seven teams "to compliment its league sponsorship,"
doesn't have "comprehensive results yet." Utton: "I can
tell you that in one year we did a lot more than we thought
we would and we are delighted with the partnership." Visa,
which "will be paying less than" $7M over the next four
years for its 17 teams, now has about 600,000 MLB affinity
cards. MC, "said to be paying almost" $12M for the same
period, has less than 300,000 (BRANDWEEK, 10/19 issue).
