Alabama's home football games are "equal parts war on the field and worship service," and they serve as the "centerpiece of Alabama Football Inc., an enterprise that generates" more than $95M annually, according to a front-page piece by Joe Drape of the N.Y. TIMES. Along with "loving football, monetizing the sport is now part" of the school's DNA. CLC guarantees Alabama $9M this year and $103M total through the '24-25 school year, while Learfield Sports guarantees up to $14M annually in revenue "as the multimedia rights holder, and it sells items like programs; game-day radio headsets; and scoreboard, online and radio ads." Learfield Sports' Crimson Tide Marketing GM Jim Carabin and his staff are "responsible for turning the typical game-day program into a glossy, 175-plus-page, sponsor-driven tome that sells 17,000 copies at $5 a pop." Carabin: "It’s no longer ‘I want an ad in the program and four season tickets.’ Everyone wants to own something unique.” Drape notes radio announcer Eli Gold "peppers his play-by-play with the 'Bromberg Jewelers Rolex Scoring' recap and teases to the 'Full Moon Bar-B-Que Halftime Report.'” Pitches for Lilly Forklift also "lead into promotions for Baumhower’s Restaurant." Inside Bryant-Denny Stadium, the "bigger regional and national sponsors own the scoreboards." Regions Bank and Toyota "pay $80,000 to have their logos rotate down the left side throughout the game." Muscle Milk and Coca-Cola "pay six figures to own the tunnels and corner boards." Anywhere from $50,000-75,000 "buys one minute of pregame ads and two minutes of in-game ads on the LED scroll and attracts companies like Cooper Tires and restaurants like Billy’s Sports Bar." Meanwhile, coach Nick Saban's postgame press conference includes a Coca-Cola on his podium and Saban enters the room holding a "bottle of Dasani water, both part of the sponsor deal" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/6).
