Nissan Motor Co. "is ending its 11-year sponsorship of
the U.S. Open Tennis Championship and cutting back on
financial commitments in motorsports and golf," according to
Kaplan & Brockinton of the SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Nissan
had sponsored the U.S. Open via its Infiniti car division.
Nissan has also "cut its budget" for its sponsorships of the
PGA Tour's Nissan Open and the Eddie Cheever IRL team and
"dropped out" as a motor provider for the Le Mans auto race.
The company, "wracked" by $13B in debt, lost $229M in '99.
Nissan Head of Event & Sports Marketing John Gill, on
dropping the U.S. Open sponsorship: "This was one of the
hardest decisions we have made since I have been around.
(But) it would be tough to lay off thousands of people and
close plants and then announce Nissan has just signed a
five-year sponsorship at the U.S. Open worth X amount of
dollars" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/21 issue).
ROCK SOLID: Prudential Securities renewed its U.S. Open
sponsorship and agreed to be title sponsor of tennis' pro
minor league, which will now be called the USTA Prudential
Securities Circuit. The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Daniel
Kaplan puts the deal between $15-20M. The Open "is expected
to generate" $34M this year from its "roughly" 20 sponsors,
up from $31M in '99 (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/21 issue).
