John Hancock CEO Sees Sponsorship Choices Declining

John Hancock Chair & CEO David D'Alessandro discussed sports sponsorship with John Powers of the BOSTON GLOBE, who noted Hancock's "sponsorship choices have been whittled to three" — the Olympics, MLB and the Boston Marathon. The "rest of the most likely options ... D'Alessandro counts out one by one." D'Alessandro, on the NFL: "You're talking about eight home games on Sunday afternoons and it's the same in every city. ... We'll take 80 (games in baseball)." D'Alessandro called the NBA "a declining sport. ... A lot of second-market teams will have problems." He added tennis "is waning. You don't have the depth of stars you used to with the likes of (Jimmy) Connors and (John) McEnroe. You have the Williams sisters, but if you've seen Williams play Williams once, you've seen them play 100 times." D'Alessandro, on golf: "What happens to a tournament if (Tiger Woods) is not playing or not in the chase? It's a problem having your ratings going up or down depending on how your one icon is playing." D'Alessandro added of NASCAR: "It's a growing sport, but I think it's a flash in the pan. It's a pure consumer product. It has 1,000 sponsorship symbols, so there's no distinction. The fatter your driver is, the more symbols he can have on his jumpsuit." Powers wrote Hancock wants "sports with both TV exposure and grass-roots marketing potential." D'Alessandro: "Those are the only things that interest me" (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/19).