Beverage Battle: Venue Pouring Rights for '08

Pepsi's market share at soda taps in big league facilities has doubled over the past decade, according to SportsBusiness Journal/SportsBusiness Daily research. In the past year, Pepsi took over soda taps at Dolphin Stadium, a building Coke had occupied for 20 years, while also taking over for Coke at Jobing.com Arena. Coke had held soda rights at Qwest Field since the stadium opened in Seattle until Jones Soda took over last fall. Coke has shifted much of its business to motorsports venues (see below) and colleges. The company announced earlier this month a 10-year, $38M deal with the Univ. of Minnesota Board of Regents that includes pouring rights at the school's new TCF Bank Stadium. The following lists venue market share for Coca-Cola and Pepsi for '08, with comparisons to market share 10 years ago. For more information on sports concessions, see this week's SportsBusiness Journal.

Coca-Cola's massive investment in NASCAR, including extensive marketing deals recently signed with track owners ISC and SMI, could give the soda giant concessions exclusivity at Sprint Cup Series' 22 tracks by 2012. By the time Coke's pouring rights kick in at ISC-owned Phoenix Int'l Raceway after the 2011 season, Dover Int'l Speedway and Pocono Raceway could be the only tracks left with Pepsi flowing from its taps. For the '08 season, Coke is in 13 Sprint Cup venues and Pepsi is in nine. The following lists a pouring-rights breakdown by league. MLB and NFL pouring rights include three stadiums that are shared by both an MLB and NFL team. NBA pouring rights include one WNBA-only arena. MLS data does not include games played at NFL venues, but does include the four temporary stadiums. For tennis venues, data includes U.S. and Canadian venues for ATP and WTA events. One tennis venue has deals with both Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and two venues have not awarded a contract for their respective '08 tournaments. In the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Coca-Cola will take over four of Pepsi's contracts over the next four years as a result of last year's deal between ISC and Coca-Cola. Three more ISC-owned tracks have the option of making the same switch once their Pepsi deals expire. For college football bowl games, data presented does not include games played at NFL or MLB venues. Dr Pepper has the tap rights during the AT&T Cotton Bowl, but the stadium itself has no pouring-rights partners.

VENUES	COCA-COLA	PEPSI	OTHER
MLB	47.1%	50.0%	2.9%
NFL	53.1%	43.8%	3.1%
NBA	45.0%	50.0%	5.0%
NHL	50.0%	50.0%	0.0%
NBA/NHL shared	60.0%	30.0%	10.0%
MLS	58.3%	33.3%	8.3%
Tennis (ATP, WTA)	47.4%	52.6%	0.0%
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series	59.1%	40.9%	0.0%
College football bowl games	46.7%	46.7%	6.7%