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NFL goes car shopping after GM decides not to return

The wheels you hear screeching across the streets of Manhattan are not just yellow taxis. We’re told the NFL is relentlessly shopping for a new car deal, having been told by General Motors that this season will be its last as an NFL corporate sponsor after holding car and truck marketing rights since 2001.

With the auto category as healthy as it’s been since the recession, we have no doubt the NFL will find a willing partner — even in a category as pricey as autos, long the biggest buyer of network TV inventory.

GM featured its GMC brand in its deal, which began in 2001.
Photo by: TERRY LEFTON / STAFF
GM, which features its GMC brand through the deal, is paying upward of $25 million (all in) a year for its NFL package.

Looking at potential replacements, Ford is a possibility, given Ford ad agency COO Mark LaNeve’s close NFL ties, stemming from his tenure as vice president of sales, service and marketing at GM from 2004 to 2009. We’ll also be interested to see whether the NFL will entertain offers from foreign auto brands. The NFL could be a great red, white and blue flag for Asian auto brands to wave. Kia’s six years with NBA rights offer an intriguing paradigm, if the NFL is willing to pair its all-American rights with a foreign nameplate.

> VERIZON-NHL DEAL ICED: Sources tell us that Verizon quietly dropped its longtime domestic NHL corporate sponsorship rights before this season.

The end of an eight-year relationship between any sponsor and property is certainly worthy of note, and that’s especially so in this case, since Verizon was the league’s biggest media spender during some of those years. Still, the larger story here seems the end of the wireless category as every property’s sugar daddy — something that has been the case over the past 15 years given the category’s geometric growth.

One integral reason Verizon pulled the plug on the NHL: its hefty commitments to its recent title sponsorship of the IndyCar Series (a deal signed this year) and its billion-dollar NFL sponsorship obligation.

Verizon has dropped its NHL sponsorship, part of some reshuffling in the category.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
“Technology is pretty similar among the carriers, so it’s progressed to a market situation where owning content is what matters,” said former MLB and NFL sponsorship marketer John Brody, now an independent consultant. “Compare it to retail marketing: It’s like having an exclusive on a product in your store. Every retailer wants that.”

There’s still telecom money at the NHL club level. According to Resource Guide Live, Verizon has six NHL team sponsorships, while AT&T has eight.

“We’ve gotten to the point where less is more in wireless,” said Tim McGhee, the former AT&T executive director of sponsorships who now heads consultancy MSP Sports. “The same amount of money is being spent but on fewer sports properties, and that will continue — with an even greater emphasis on content rights.”

Finding another telecom sponsor won’t be easy for the NHL, but the loss does come at a time when the category is reshuffling. AT&T is also shedding properties; its former Cotton Bowl title sponsorship is one example. Sprint held NHL league marketing rights before Verizon, but it’s hard to believe that it would want NHL and NBA rights simultaneously. T-Mobile has an MLB deal. That leaves the NHL with only second-tier wireless brands in the U.S. as candidates, so perhaps an entirely different sort of deal is more likely.

“What you’ll see coming in a lot of these cases [wireless sponsorships] are content deals with some sponsorship elements, as opposed to sponsorship deals with some content elements, which is the way it has been for years,” said John Tatum, CEO of Genesco Sports, which handles T-Mobile’s sports marketing.

> WORLDWIDE VIEW FROM L.A.: The 2015 Special Olympics World Games have raised about $50 million of their $70 million targeted to support the event, which will be held next summer in and around Los Angeles. More than 7,000 athletes from 170 countries will compete from July 25 through Aug 2. ESPN is televising 13 hours.

The largest sponsors include Bank of America, which is backing a torch run, along with Toyota, Coke, Mattel and, most recently, Microsoft. The organizing committee is hunting for corporate patrons in the apparel, wireless, energy and quick-service restaurant categories. Sponsorships start in the low seven figures.

The whole thing gets particularly intriguing when viewed as a trial run for a potential Los Angeles Olympics bid.

RAWN
> COMINGS & GOINGS: Premier PartnershipsUzma Rawn has been elevated to vice president, corporate partnerships, and is heading the third-party sales firm’s New York City office. Rawn has been with Premier since 2010. She started her career in 2006 at the NBA in its team marketing and business operations division. … Former U.S. Olympic Committee account executive Andy Silver joins Genesco Sports as a senior vice president. Silver was with IMG Consulting for 15 years. … Tony Wells joins energy specialist Schneider Electric as senior vice president of marketing for North America, to lead the business-to-business brand’s charge into America’s consumer consciousness. Wells, who will be based in the San Francisco area, was chief marketing officer at ADT. He also has held marketing positions at 24 Hour Fitness and Visa. … Matt Lafrennie, son of LPGA Symetra Tour director of corporate partnerships Dave Lafrennie, joins the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the New York Yankees’ Class AAA affiliate, as a regional sales manager. The younger Lafrennie has also worked for two Advanced A clubs: the Daytona Cubs and the Bradenton Marauders.

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

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