McDonald's Extends NHL Sponsorship To Include U.S. Rights

McDonald's Advertising Will Be Visible At Winter Classic, All-Star Weekend

The NHL "has added McDonald's to its roster of corporate sponsors with U.S. rights," inking the QSR to a deal through the ’09-10 season, according to Terry Lefton in this week's SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. McDonald’s has been a Canadian sponsor of the league since ’93 and “has local rights deals with 15 NHL teams, including one in its final stages” with the Blackhawks. Under the new deal, McDonald’s “gets ads on NHL.com and the NHL Network and makes advertising commitments to NHL rights holders NBC and Versus.” The deal also includes USA Hockey rights, which “fit nicely with McDonald’s TOP Olympic deal.” At the January 1 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic game featuring Red Wings-Blackhawks, McDonald’s gets “exclusive branding behind the player benches and penalty boxes in the NBC telecast.” The QSR will also sponsor the accuracy contest during the NHL All-Star Game SuperSkills competition. McDonald’s Senior Dir of Alliance Marketing John Lewicki said of the company’s plans to activate around the new pact, “It will be media focused for now. We’ll use the Winter Classic to push Premium Roast coffee, because that’s a good match” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 12/22 issue).