Seattle-Based Jones Soda Wants Out Of Marketing Deal With Nets

Seattle-based Jones Soda Co. is "attempting to terminate their marketing agreement" with the Nets, marking "another diminishment of market share" for the company, according to Alex Mayer of the BELLTOWN MESSENGER. In a e-mail dated November 12, Jones Soda CEO Stephen Jones asked Jones Manager of Legal Affairs Paula McGee "if she can 'please study whether we can get out of this [Nets] deal due to delays and questionable future of this project.'" Mayer reports it seems Jones Soda execs "aren't happy with rumors" that the Nets may stay in New Jersey instead of relocating to their planned Barclays Arena in Brooklyn. Jones Soda reportedly paid for "some sort of business arrangement with the Nets which would allow them to vend their soda in a stadium which may never exist, but only in a city where the Nets will never play." Jones Exec VP/Sales Tom O'Neil: "The Nets are losing $40M a year. They aren't going to want to release us or even help us get out of the deal. They need our money" (BELLTOWN MESSENGER, 12/ '08 issue).