College Football Spring Games Gaining Traction With Sponsors
College football bowl games "have long been affiliated with corporate sponsors, but in a growing trend on campuses, sponsorship deals have been sprouting in recent years for spring games and scrimmages," according to Carey & Gardiner of USA TODAY. In the next few weeks, some of the nation's "highest-profile football programs will have their spring games affiliated with corporate sponsors." Games affiliated with title or presenting sponsorships include The Dish Network Orange & White Game at Tennessee, the Golden Flake A-Day Game at Alabama, the Auburn A-Day Game Presented by the U.S. Navy and the Super Bulldog Weekend presented by Regions Bank at Mississippi State. Learfield Sports President Greg Brown said that spring game connections are "attractive to sponsors because the games are more accessible to fans than regular-season games, which often are dominated by season ticketholders and boosters." Brown: "Most of the games are either free or very nominally priced. They can be like a blank canvas for schools looking to create new ways to reach out to their fans. This is all very attractive to companies." Brown indicated that a title sponsorship "can generate from $30,000 for the more modest programs to six-figure sums for high-profile schools." For Tennessee, which has had corporate sponsorship for its spring game "for about a decade," Dish Network is one of five "corporate champion" sponsors affiliated with the school's athletic department. Tennessee's Vol Network VP & GM Steve Early, whose organization is a division of IMG College, said, "We don't sell the spring game a la carte, so to speak. It's part of a corporate sponsorship deal approaching seven figures." Also, some schools, including Texas Tech and UNLV, are "holding 'garage sales' in conjunction with spring games" to raise money, "selling apparel and equipment that is no longer being used" (USA TODAY, 4/17).
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