The Ravens announced yesterday a 20-year, $105.5M
sponsorship agreement with VA-based PSINet, saying that the
deal will "revolutionize sports marketing and the way fans
interact with their teams," according to Jon Morgan of the
Baltimore SUN. PSINet Chair William Schrader said the
partnership will become "the envy of sports franchises
worldwide." Morgan reports on details of the deal:
The facility will be named PSINet Stadium, and the
company will have its name placed over each of the
scoreboards inside the stadium, and a logo will be created
for the outside. PSINet will also create a new Ravens Web
site, with online shopping, player bios and other features,
and offer in-stadium interactive kiosks with free Internet
connection. Current NFL restrictions prohibit PSINet from
calling itself the "official Internet provider" of the
Ravens, or using team trademarks for marketing purposes,
because Sprint currently has league-wide telecom rights.
That agreement expires in a few months, and "the league may
turn the sponsorship category back to teams." PSINet also
plans to enable the Ravens to become an ISP through a
"subscription-based, Ravens-branded" service the company
"hopes will become the primary Internet portal for many
people." While subscription rates "have not been
determined," a source "familiar with the agreement" said
PSINet will "keep most of the subscription revenue and the
team and company will split the proceeds of related
advertising and merchandise sales" (Baltimore SUN, 1/27).
In N.Y., Mary Huhn writes that the Ravens "are the first
sports team to become an ISP, which will be called the Raven
Zone." The new Web site and ISP service will both be
launched on April 17 around the NFL Draft (N.Y. POST, 1/27).
HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH? In a related piece, Jon Morgan
writes that those "familiar with the deal" say that the
naming rights aspect of the deal "may be higher" than $1M
per year, after "peripheral elements" of the PSINet deal are
factored into the $5.3M average annual payments. PSINet
will receive two spots in each of the team's pre-game and
"Ravens Report" TV shows and two TV spots in each preseason
game, all of which would normally cost $84,500 per year.
Radio and print ads bring the media component of the deal to
"about" $600,000 per year. A pair of PSINet skyboxes in the
deal amount to $400,000 a season (Baltimore SUN, 1/27).
MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING: When discussing the sale of
naming rights last year, Ravens Owner Art Modell said, "I
don't want an ugly name. I want a highly recognizable name
that means something to the people here." Jon Morgan
reports that VA-based PSINet is a 2,000-employee, global
firm "known better to businesses than consumers because it
mostly markets to commercial customers" (Baltimore SUN,
1/27). Also in Baltimore, columnist Gregory Kane calls for
fans to "boycott" the Ravens, since "somebody has to pay for
this insult to Baltimore's football fans." Kane: "Just
don't go to an edifice with a name as atrocious as PSINet
Stadium. Refuse to place your butt on a seat" (SUN, 1/27).
