Adelphia Communications used the Jaguars-Titans "MNF"
game at Adelphia Coliseum as the backdrop to "several days
of strategic meetings" as the company "attempts to expand
from 53 markets to 155 in the next two years," according to
Richard Lawson of the Nashville TENNESSEAN. The company's
15-year, $30M naming rights deal signed in June '99 "is
exceeding the company's expectations for building name
recognition and easing entry into the Nashville market and
regional markets." The deal "has paid off well for the
company locally by adding more small- and medium-sized
customers," and it has helped the company recruit employees.
The deal has also "eased the company's expansion into
markets beyond the core it sought." Adelphia's Internet
Manager Jim Wood: "We no longer have to call and explain who
we are." Adelphia's Chicago GM Mike Underdown: "Adelphia
wasn't well-recognized in Chicago until the Titans hit the
Super Bowl." Lawson writes that the $30M deal is now seen
as "quite a bargain" compared to others in the marketplace.
The Bonham Group Chair Dean Bonham said that if Adelphia had
to renegotiate its deal now, it probably would be worth up
to $4M per year given the play of the Titans. Bonham:
"[Adelphia has] among the top two or three naming-rights
deals in the country today." But while the deal has helped
the company's name recognition, it has not "helped boost the
company's stock price," which has been trading near its 52-
week low of $7 (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 10/18).
