Russell Athletic is close to completing a five-year deal that would provide $6 million in cash plus apparel and equipment to the 32 historically black colleges and universities that make up the Southwestern Athletic Conference, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
The deal would provide $1.2 million a year (to be split among the conferences) plus apparel for football, men's and women's basketball, baseball and softball, as well as equipment and inflatables such as basketballs, footballs and volleyballs, sources said.
Typically, historically black colleges and universities purchase their equipment and apparel. The Russell deal will save each athletic department as much as $100,000 a year, said a source who did not want to be identified.
In exchange for cash and apparel, Russell would receive traditional sponsorship and marketing rights to the schools and the three conferences, and also would have rights to create a licensed merchandise program for the schools and conferences, sources said.
The Russell sponsorship is being negotiated by Oakland-based New Vision Sports Properties, which has sponsorship and marketing sales rights to the SWAC, SIAC and MEAC.
Last year, DaimlerChrysler AG and Earthlink signed with New Vision to sponsor the conferences and their schools. DaimlerChrysler's deal also pays out $1 million-plus annually, while Earthlink's agreement is an in-kind deal under which Earthlink will revamp all 32 schools' athletic Web sites, create an e-commerce component for those sites and create an alumni database for the schools.
Russell's corporate vice president of diversity, Kevin Clayton, and officials from New Vision would not discuss terms of the deal.
DUKE TOPS GOAL BY $20M: Duke University's athletic fund-raising department
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| Duke’s fund raising is on a run. |
has wrapped up a seven-year fund-raising campaign that exceeded its goal of $130 million by more than $20 million.
The campaign was part of the "Campaign for Duke," an overall university effort to raise $2 billion.
Fund raising began in January 1996, with original goals calling for the university to raise $1.5 billion, including $65 million in athletics funds. Those goals were increased to $2 billion and $130 million about halfway into the campaign. The university ended up raising $2.2 billion, more than $152 million of that raised by the athletic department.
"Every sport has been touched by funds from the campaign," said Susan Ross, associate athletic director for development at Duke.
Ross, who expected final donation numbers to be tallied by the end of last week, said money from the campaign led to an increase in the number of scholarships the athletic department annually gives out from 190 to 235, an increase of about $26 million to Duke's athletic endowment, and the renovation or construction of sports facilities.
PURDUE RIGHTS : Purdue University's athletic department has tapped Purdue Sports Properties — a joint venture of Strategic Marketing Affiliates and Learfield Sports — to handle its marketing and media rights beginning July 1.
Strategic Marketing Affiliates holds Purdue's marketing rights, which includes corporate sponsor packages and signs in athletic venues, while Host Communications has the media rights, which include print, radio, coaches television shows and game programs.
SMA's and Host's contracts were to expire June 30, so Purdue decided to bundle its rights as a means of increasing value to its marketing partner and eliminating marketplace confusion, said Nancy Cross, associate athletic director for marketing. The new agreement with Purdue Sports Properties begins July 1 and runs for five years.
Cross wouldn't reveal financial details but said the deal does not include an annual rights fee. Purdue has been generating more than $3 million a year from marketing and media, she said.
Contact Jennifer Lee at jlee@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
