The University of Colorado’s highly publicized football recruiting scandal has not affected the Buffaloes’ existing athletic sponsorships, school officials said last week, but whether the situation affects future business remains to be seen.
Colorado has about 50 sponsors, and none has dropped its commitment, said Matt Lane, general manager for Buffalo Sports Properties, a division of Learfield Communications, which holds multimedia marketing rights to the Colorado athletic department.
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Multiyear partners and those that were up for renewal have been “very supportive,” Lane said.
“[They] for the most part understand it’s a situation where we have to gather all the facts,” he said. “They understand the value of what they’ve been a part of and that that’s still there.”
Earlier this month, an eight-person panel investigating Colorado’s recruiting practices presented its findings to the Colorado Board of Regents. Late last week, Colorado President Betsy Hoffman, in response to the committee’s findings, announced the university would retain AD Dick Tharp and football coach Gary Barnett but that the department would operate under a different oversight and reporting structure within the framework of the university than in the past.
“The charges that were made were serious, and we wanted to watch it completely,” said Rich Jones, vice president of marketing for Colorado sponsor U of C Federal Credit Union. “But as far as affecting our sponsorship, it did not affect it. … We didn’t feel it was in anybody’s best interest to pull out.”
Jones added that the credit union’s relationship with Colorado extends beyond football and into other sports and other areas on campus.
Joe Hodas, spokesman for Buffaloes sponsor Frontier Airlines, echoed Jones’ comments and pointed out that Frontier is still reaching the audience it needs to reach through its sponsorship. Frontier, like most existing Colorado sponsors, is based locally, in Denver.
In addition to general athletics sponsorship work, Learfield, through Buffalo Sports Properties, handles radio and television coaches shows at Colorado. Barnett has a radio call-in show and is involved with a magazine-style TV show. As with the other areas of existing sponsorships, Lane said, there has been no decline in support of the programs.
Companies to which Lane has been pitching new sponsorships, however, have taken a different tack.
“The response and reaction [from prospective sponsors] has been pretty positive,” Lane said, “but it’s one of those things where people are taking a wait-and-see attitude.”
The university’s announcement last week, Lane said, enables the department to return to these companies for additional presentations.
“At least at this point we’ve cleared a hurdle and we can move forward in the process and see how it affects their decisions,” he said.
Bruce Fletcher, Colorado’s director of licensing, agreed. As of last week, Fletcher said, he did not know of any canceled licensed-merchandise orders.
“It’s a little too soon to get a direct impact,” he said. “I don’t know if [retailer] Gart Sports or bigger-box stores will cancel orders.”
Fletcher added that the impact on licensing probably won’t be known until later this summer, when school resumes and football begins. He did acknowledge there might be some cancellations, since buyers are typically cautious in what they order.
It also is too early to gauge the impact of the scandal on ticket sales for the fall.
Season-ticket efforts began in mid-February, coincidentally just weeks after the first reports of recruiting concerns surfaced. Ken Klingler, assistant ticket manager, said the sales staff so far has simply experienced the typical decline in interest that follows a losing season. The Buffaloes were 5-7 last year.
Exact numbers on season-ticket sales weren’t available, but renewal rates are expected to be at 90 percent to 92 percent compared with about 98 percent following a winning season, Klingler said. Single-game ticket sales don’t begin until July.
