Marketplace Round-Up
SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL’s Tripp Mickle reports Eastman Kodak will “step down as a [USOC] partner after the ’08 Beijing Games” when it also ends its partnership with the IOC. Kodak had been the official imaging sponsor of the IOC since the TOP program began in ’86 and its partnership with the USOC was an “extension of that relationship.” Sources valued the deal at “more than $5[M] over four years” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 10/29 issue).
GAME DAY: September sales released by research firm NPD Group show that EA’s “Madden 08” and “NCAA 08” are both “underperforming compared with the same month last year.” Sales of “Madden 08” were down 48% from last year with 619,000 copies sold, while “NCAA 08” was down 23% with 113,000 copies sold. Electronic Gaming Monthly Editor-In-Chief Dan Hsu said, “EA is a strong brand, but a predictable one. Gamers know what they’re getting into: something with high production value and solid but not spectacular gameplay” (BUSINESSWEEK.com, 10/29).
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS: Red Sox CF Jacoby Ellsbury’s agent, Octagon's Joe Urbon, said that a Taco Bell affiliation "is just one of the endorsement deals that Ellsbury expects to ink before the glow of the Red Sox series victory fades.” Ellsbury, who triggered the company’s free taco promotion by stealing a base during Game Two of the World Series, appeared yesterday at a Boston-area Taco Bell to sign autographs for fans waiting for their free tacos (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/31).
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