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Bay Area firms help drive market for appearances

The NFL Players Association has booked more than 675 paid appearances for players at events around this week’s Super Bowl, the highest number ever.

Appearances are up by more than 20 percent over last year’s Super Bowl in Arizona and the Super Bowl two years ago in New York, said Ahmad Nassar, NFL Players Inc. president. NFL player appearances at events surrounding the last two Super Bowls were in the low 500s.

Total related fees generated by this year’s Super Bowl will exceed $7 million, Nassar said. That compares with about $5.5 million paid to players making Super Bowl appearances the last two years.

“It’s a little surprising” that appearances are ahead of Super Bowl XLVIII in New York, Nassar said, but the 50th anniversary of the Super Bowl is helping pump up the number. More than that, Silicon Valley corporations are embracing the event.

“Let’s face it, these are companies with a lot of money and individuals with a lot of money,” Nassar said. “So they are willing to spend what it takes for players to be there.”

NFL sponsors such as Pepsi, Verizon, Gatorade and Bose plan events with players every year, but the NFLPA has had to bring more staff from its Washington, D.C., headquarters to accommodate the increased demand from Bay Area companies. Players, meanwhile, are interested in meeting with tech executives and entrepreneurs, and the NFLPA has launched its first “tech tour” for players to visit companies (see related story).

Appearances made by players vary from social media campaigns, meet and greets, and autograph sessions to speeches for employees at companies.

“On a Friday afternoon [companies] will get all of their employees in a cafeteria and they will have someone interesting speak to them,” Nassar said. “Sometimes it’s a political person. Sometimes it’s an athlete, so we fit into that.”

Players from the local teams, the 49ers and Raiders, are in demand, as are players who played at Northern California colleges. Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, who played at Stanford, and Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch and Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, both of whom played at Cal, are popular, Nassar said.

The fees paid to players range from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. “If a company says we want a player for $500, we will say, ‘Hey, look, there is not a lot of guys who will do it for that price,’” Nassar said. “But we will make the offer to players.”


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