The Cowboys "reached an agreement" with TX-based
Catalog.com, which has "created a new web design" for the
team at http://www.dallascowboys.com, "taken over as the
hosting solution" for the site and is "serving as the
Internet point of sale for exclusive team merchandise,"
according to Charean Williams of the FT. WORTH STAR-
TELEGRAM. Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones said that the team and
Catalog.com have an "operating partnership based on an
incentive plan." Jones "hinted" the sides "could expand
their partnership" in the future: "The better we do, the
better they do." Williams reports that in "one month with
Catalog.com, sales of Cowboys' merchandise nearly equaled"
the team's Internet sales from the previous year. The team
has "obtained an exclusive anchor sponsorship of the popular
Sports Fanatics community on Catalog.com." Jones: "When it
comes to the Internet, we want to be the very best. We want
to be the cutting edge. We want to be out front. We know
we have a good head start" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 11/17).
In Dallas, Richard Alm writes that the fact that the
Cowboys' Web site had 30 million hits last year was a "big
factor in why Catalog.com wanted to make the team its first
sports partner." Catalog.com CEO Bob Crull: "The Cowboys
are one of the top 10 brands in the world. The association
will be very valuable to us" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/17).
JONES' REASONING? The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's John
Lombardo writes that as a "rift" develops "between the have
and have-not" NFL franchises over e-commerce, some of the
league's teams are "working to steer more traffic away from"
NFL.com "toward their own" Web sites. The reason for this
is that under the NFL's revenue-sharing, "all proceeds from
e-commerce sale through NFL.com must be split 31 ways, while
teams can keep all proceeds" from sales from their own Web
sites. Lombardo notes that the "top-selling teams" are
"expected to sell more than" $2M of merchandise each from
their Web sites this year (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 11/15).
