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Idle October gives Red Sox head start on sponsorship sales

The Boston Red Sox have learned that the roller-coaster ride that has seen the team bounce from last place in 2012 to World Series champions in 2013 and back to last place this year has some advantages.

Chief among those is getting an early start on sponsorship sales efforts. Accordingly, it is not even Thanksgiving, and the Red Sox have half their corporate renewals finished.

“You could call it cold comfort, but that’s the silver lining of not playing October baseball,” said Red Sox COO Sam Kennedy. “You get a head start.”
 
Among the largest deals completed was one that converted Nissan’s Infiniti luxury car brand from a one-year sponsorship to five years. Under the expanded deal, Infiniti will have its name on a new 35-seat high-end suite on the EMC Club level in left field that Red Sox Senior Vice President of Corporate Partnerships Troup Parkinson promises will be sleek enough to carry the flag for Infiniti — even in a ballpark that’s more than a century old.

“Infiniti is looking to push trial, so the idea is that the suite will emulate the experience of getting in one of their cars,” Parkinson said. “It should be unlike anything at Fenway.”

There also will be 122 seats added atop the new suite, as part of the park’s Coca-Cola Corner. Infiniti will continue with signage on left field’s Green Monster, as well.

Ford and Hyundai split marketing rights for the rest of the auto category.

Also renewed was Poland Spring as the team’s official bottled water, no mean feat given the size of the Coke sign in right field. However, Poland Spring has been with the Sox since 2005.

> BETTER CONNECTIONS: Cisco, Extreme Networks and Chinese telecom giant Huawei are having a connectivity competition at a St. Louis Rams game Dec. 21. The winner gets to install Wi-Fi at the Edward Jones Dome, which currently has limited service.

Aside from testing out the efficacy of the various systems, the “Wi-Fi bakeoff” is intriguing because of the various sponsorship models involved. Cisco sells its services as straight capital expenditure, with no sponsorship dollars attached. Huawei and Extreme Networks each started with a sponsorship model. Extreme Networks has an NFL league deal under which it’s designated as the league’s “official Wi-Fi analytics provider.” Extreme Networks also has Wi-Fi systems installed at NFL stadiums including those in Cincinnati, New England, Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Tennessee and Seattle. Huawei, meanwhile, recently signed a seven-figure deal with the Washington Redskins under which it will install Wi-Fi at FedEx Field.

The NFL has asked all its teams to provide free Wi-Fi access for fans by the 2016 season.

> STRIP POKER: While AEG/MGM’s $375 million arena on the Las Vegas Strip won’t be open until spring 2016, at the earliest, AEG is on the street with a price tag for naming rights of around $6.5 million a year. The planned arena will host between 100 and 150 events annually. Sources said AEG is seeking a minimum term of 15 years for naming rights. The facility will have a 5.4-acre footprint and be part of an eight-acre entertainment and dining district called The Park, located near the New York-New York and Monte Carlo casinos.

FSG has an eye on how the Padres hosted tennis.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
> A NEW RACKET: Red Sox COO Sam Kennedy also tells us that now having hosted concerts, soccer, football and hockey at Fenway Park, the powers that be at Fenway Sports Group are looking at hosting a tennis event at the venerable ballpark. While insisting that the effort is still in its formative stages, Kennedy said he’s spoken with several tennis promoters about hosting a one or two-day “high-profile” midsummer tennis event for which a court would be built on top of the baseball field.

“Ownership is pushing us to try new and different kinds of events,” Kennedy said, “and we’ve been encouraged by what [San Diego Padres President and former Red Sox COO] Mike Dee and the Padres did in hosting an ATP event.” The Padres built a temporary 7,000-seat “stadium” on the Petco Park outfield, including a clay court, that enabled the MLB facility to host a round of the Davis Cup in February.

“I don’t know where the court would go [in Fenway] or who would participate, but it would be a great fit for us in the summer months,” Kennedy said.

Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.

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