The Royals this weekend will begin serving Snapple products at Kauffman Stadium as part of a new deal making the brand the official iced tea of the club. An announcement of the multiyear deal is expected in the coming days. Financial terms were not disclosed. Royals VP/Marketing & Business Development Mike Bucek said the club "carved out tea" when it renewed its soft drink deal with Pepsi prior to the '14 season with the hopes of bringing on a tea-specific partner. "Our hope was either Pepsi would step up to partner with us in that category or we would find someone else," Bucek said. "We knew we had some good dialogue with Snapple." PepsiCo, as part of a joint venture with Unilever, owns both the Lipton and Brisk iced tea brands. Snapple is part of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group. Bucek said the Snapple deal, which also includes signage at the ballpark, was almost two years in the making. He said Kauffman Stadium will sell "three or four flavors" of Snapple tea in newly developed plastic bottles. Specific activation plans for Snapple around the Royals are still in the works.
