The Celtics said Saturday they are "on the verge of
severing their relationship with Fleet Financial Group in
favor of archrival BankBoston Corp. or Providence-based
Citizens Financial Group," according to Tina Cassidy of the
BOSTON GLOBE. The move would be a "public relations blow to
the region's largest bank, particularly given that the team
plays in the FleetCenter, an arena that cost the bank" $30M
for naming rights. The Celtics say they are "unhappy" with
Fleet because many of the bankers in its sports lending
division with ties to the team have resigned after the John
Spano incident; the team also "wants a larger marketing
contract than Fleet was allegedly willing to provide" after
the team signed Rick Pitino. Source close to the situation
say the team may be trying to get more from the bank than
its $50M "borrowing business is worth." They add the team
is looking for $6M worth of marketing over five years, while
it "generates only $250,000 in revenue per year for the
bank." Celtics Chair Paul Gaston has met with BankBoston
Chair Charles Gifford, and BankBoston had the team's account
for about 10 years before Shawmut took it over in the early
'90s. Citizens Chair Lawrence Fish is also eyeing the
account (BOSTON GLOBE, 9/14). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's
Jeffrey Krasner values the account at $120M. Fleet Dir of
Corporate Marketing & Communications Anne Finucane: "You can
see where it would be very attractive to someone that didn't
have the name Fleet in the arena, but our name is everywhere
in that building" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/15).
