Bobcats Bag Harris Teeter To Sponsorship Deal; Dump Agency

Charlotte-based grocer Harris Teeter has inked a five-year sponsorship agreement with the Bobcats, which industry experts value at $300,000-500,000 annually, according to Erik Spanberg of the CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL. The deal includes promotions at Harris Teeter stores and at Bobcats home games, as well as sponsorship of a preseason game against the Heat on October 26 to be attended by 14,000 middle-school students from the area. Harris Teeter Regional VP John Rohr: “We’ve always been a supporter of the community and the sports teams. We think this fits in with our track record.” Harris Teeter also sponsors the NFL Panthers and Hurricanes (BIZJOURNALS.com, 9/28).

WARDED OFF: The CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL’s Spanberg also reports that 18 months after the Bobcats hired Wray Ward Laseter, Charlotte, “to handle their wide-ranging advertising campaign,” the team and agency have parted ways. The team’s ad account was estimated at $1M when awarded in May ’03. Bobcats Exec VP/Corporate Affairs Chris Weiller indicated that the team will “develop some of its advertising internally and has no plans to have an agency of record going forward” (CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 9/24 issue). Weiller did say that the agency will “continue to work on some specific projects with the Bobcats,” including the launch of C-SET. The team will “likely work with a variety of groups for its marketing needs, along with handling some projects in-house” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 9/28).