The NFL has “renewed its secondary ticketing sponsorship and business venture with Ticketmaster for five years and at least $200 million,” according to sources cited by Daniel Kaplan of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Owners voted “unanimously to extend the contract at their annual meeting last week in Palm Beach, Fla.” The new deal “will begin with the 2013 season,” and one of the features is that TicketExchange’s rivals “will no longer be able to advertise on NFL digital products other than for specific non-football events.” The previous agreement allowed those companies to “advertise NFL game tickets on NFL digital outlets.” NFL Senior VP/Corporate Development Neil Glat said, “You will see a lot less of that going forward.” Kaplan notes about “a dozen teams were not initially with TicketExchange at the start of the 2008 contract.” StubHub and RazorGator at that time “had most of those additional team deals, which were allowed to expire under their own terms as the league’s Ticketmaster deal took effect.” Now all 32 teams will “be on board for the new contract with TicketExchange; the 32-0 vote approving the extension showed teams were not hesitant to pool their rights in this category.” The league at the start of the old deal “got about $20 million, or $1 million per participating club, annually.” Sources said that teams now will “get a bit more than $1 million per club, plus Ticketmaster will pay about $8 million annually to the league.” Ticketmaster also “must spend about $25 million over the course of the contract to promote the service, though the company is expected to spend more” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 4/2 issue).
