The one-season deal includes Geico becoming the exclusive insurance sponsor of U.S. Figure SkatingLITTLE CAESARS ARENA
Geico quietly replaced Prudential last fall as the title sponsor of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships that is underway in Detroit. The one-season deal includes Geico becoming the exclusive insurance sponsor of the NGB, a narrower category than Prudential had in its deal that had been in place since '12, which included asset management and wealth services. USFS CMO Ramsey Baker said, “We’d love to see this grow [into a multi-year deal]. But if it doesn’t, they’re a great partner to have for this year, and we’ll be in the market for a new partner for the next four-year period hot and heavy come the March-April-May stretch.” Terms were not disclosed, but the Geico deal is smaller than Prudential because it lacks other extensions Prudential acquired, such as sponsoring the USFS’ FanZone app and grassroots activations at local ice rinks, Baker said. The deal was negotiated by Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment, USFS’s exclusive sales agent, and Scout Sports & Entertainment on behalf of Geico. Detroit is hosting the championships, which started last Friday with juvenile and intermediate categories. Elite competition starts tomorrow.
MORE SPONSORSHIP NEWS: USFS has signed HomeLight as its official real estate sponsor, as the company will sponsor the technical scoring bug on NBC/NBCSN broadcasts of the championships. Bridgestone also renewed a one-year deal it first signed with USFS prior to the '18 Pyeongchang Games, while mobile phone service sponsor Consumer Cellular is returning for two more years. Wayfair, J.M. Smucker Co. and Viking Cruises are expiring this year, and Baker said renewal negotiations will start soon. P&G did not renew. This is the first year for USFS sales under its new media rights deal with NBC, which gives it control of the entire media inventory. Van Wagner provides a guarantee to USFS on media revenue in exchange for exclusive sales rights, which Baker has previously described as “mid-seven figures.” He said, "We’re excited, because we know at a minimum exactly what we can put into that budget for the 2019-20 season for TV related sponsorship revenue. We haven’t been able to do that since we left ABC.”
