Monumental Sports & Entertainment is splitting the agency assignment for selling naming rights to the
Verizon Center, where the current deal expires at the end of 2018.
While the decision bears some resemblance to King Solomon’s threat to bifurcate an infant to resolve a custody battle, we’ll see if the plan is considered Solomonic in the long run, since facility rebrands are the trickiest sales in the title-sponsorship game.
Sources tell us the sales assignment is not yet papered but will see MP & Silva taking the lead and mining its diverse web of international media and marketing clients. Monumental’s sales force, headed by CRO Jim Van Stone, will prospect domestic opportunities. Meanwhile, Horizon Media’s Scout Sports & Entertainment will help Monumental with analytics, develop an out-of-home ad strategy for the arena’s transition from being known as the Phone Booth, and help package media associated with the sponsorship.
 |
The naming-rights deal for the Verizon Center expires at the end of 2018.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
|
Neither
Chris Lencheski, advising
MP & Silva, nor Scout managing partner
Michael Neuman would comment. Van Stone also did not return a request for comment.
Verizon and MCI, which Verizon acquired in 2006, have held naming rights for the home of the Washington Capitals, Mystics and Wizards and the Georgetown men’s basketball team since the arena opened in 1997, but the back story here is fascinating. Essentially, the original 20-year naming-rights deal was structured as a one-time $80 million payment (one D.C. marketer told us $77 million), which helped former Caps/Wizards owner Abe Pollin finance the new $260 million home for his NHL and NBA teams in the mid-1990s. Accordingly, Monumental has not received a dime in naming-rights income, even though Verizon’s name is on the outside of the arena, on the ice and basketball court, and on tickets. Consider that point if and when a Verizon mouthpiece repeats the spurious claim that they “haven’t made a decision” on renewing. Trust us: Verizon and Monumental love each other as much as Tom Brady loves Roger Goodell.
Verizon has spent incremental money to sponsor team assets in the Verizon Center, but so have competing telecom brands, which tells us the original deal wasn’t structured broadly enough to include all forms of telecom. So over the years, you’ve had a bevy of telecom brands sponsoring the teams playing in the Verizon Center, including Verizon, at least some of the time. Last season, the NBA Wizards were sponsored by MetroPCS, while the WNBA Mystics were sponsored by Sprint-owned Boost Mobile. Meanwhile, both teams’ home floors carried the Verizon name.
Verizon’s deal expires Dec. 31, 2018, but there has been some discussion about a potential new partner buying out the last year of the agreement.
The agency shootout held over the past five or six months to handle naming rights included some intriguing agency combinations, including Team Services principal E.J. Narcise teaming with Brian Corcoran’s Shamrock Sports & Entertainment, and Rob Yowell’s Gemini Sports Group joining with Scout. MP & Silva is looking to establish credibility in this country and demonstrate its capabilities here beyond media rights.
In the D.C. market, there’s likely some local competition for naming rights, with the 7-year-old Washington Nationals’ home park in D.C. still without a corporate moniker. A new stadium on the horizon for the MLS D.C. United also will have a naming-rights deal.
As for an asking price? From the experts we know, they varied from a pessimistic range of $6 million to $8 million annually to those more enthusiastic who say that an NBA/NHL/WNBA/college arena in the “business and government nexus of the American economy should easily bring $10 million or more,” according to one source. Not coincidentally, that’s what the Nationals are seeking for their nameplate.
> LOUNGE LIZARDS: Madison Square Garden will join the growing list of pro sports venues with branded space bearing the name of a paid fantasy provider when it opens the DraftKings Lounge later this year. The lounge is an 1,800-plus-square-foot conversion of the old Bar Madison on the main concourse at MSG. Inside, a number of pro games will be shown on monitors, along with a scoreboard keeping track of games across sports.
 |
DraftKings is putting its name on a lounge on the main concourse of Madison Square Garden.
Photo by: MSG |
DraftKings signed a top-level signature partnership with MSG last spring, a deal that included its logo on WNBA Liberty jerseys.
The question everyone in sports media and sponsorship sales is asking: whether paid-fantasy marketing dollars will come and go like the summer.
Ron Skotarczak, MSG executive vice president of marketing partnerships, noted the DraftKings hookup is around five years in length. “We wouldn’t have done a long-term deal if we thought the [paid-fantasy] category was going away soon,” he said. “I happen to believe it will be around for a long time.”
Other new MSG sponsors: Dunkin’ Donuts, which will get the equivalent of “pouring rights” at the arena, including two concession stands, along with team rights. Seeking business-to-business and consumer connections, Major Energy is expanding its sponsorship from a single team to a more comprehensive relationship, Skotarczak said.
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
