Bank Of America Near Deal For Top Sponsorship At Yankee Stadium

Bank Of America Nearing Premier Partnership Deal To Sponsor New Yankee Stadium

Bank of America (BofA) is "close to taking the wraps off the largest sponsorship associated with the new Yankee Stadium," according to Terry Lefton in this week's SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. While sources said that an agreement on the Premier Partnership package, which has been on the market since late last year through CAA Sports, "has been reached, an announcement date" for the deal has not yet been set. Terms of the deal could not be confirmed, though the sponsorship earlier this year was "being shopped at $20[M] a year." Sources indicated that the deal was "worth more" than the Mets' naming-rights deal with Citi and the Nets' deal with Barclays, each of which "was said to be for an average of $20[M] a year over 20 years and set a new benchmark." However, another source said that the Yankees-BofA deal "was in the mid-teens per annum." Sources said that BofA and JPMorgan Chase "were competing for the deal, with Chase the lead candidate and close to completing an agreement." Sources added that BofA at one point during the last nine months of talks "was entirely out of the running for the deal," but BofA execs "felt they could not lose the deal to their rival in the important [N.Y.] market, so they aggressively re-entered the picture." Lefton notes the deal augments BofA's "extensive sports portfolio," which includes naming rights to the NFL Panthers' stadium, deals with the NFL and MLB and a partnership with the USOC, among others (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 9/8 issue).