Fear of recession grows daily across America, but don’t tell the New York Yankees. One proposal out there for the top sponsorship at the new Yankee Stadium is listed for about $20 million annually.
CAA is selling the package and using it as a cornerstone for marketing efforts of its sports division. The package includes a variety of sign and marketing inventory in and around the Yankees new home, but does not include naming rights to Yankee Stadium. That means that the Yankees and CAA Sports are attempting to sell one of the biggest facility sponsorship packages ever without what’s usually considered the most valuable piece of sponsorship inventory. That’s exactly what makes it so intriguing to the rest of the sports industry.
“As the uber-brand for baseball, and sports generally, the Yankees are the only American franchise that could do this, with the possible exception of the [Dallas] Cowboys,” said Phoenix-based naming-rights consultant Rob Yowell, who’s had a hand in the deals that put Honda’s brand on the home of the Anaheim Ducks and Oracle’s name on the Golden State Warriors’ home arena. “But I would put any price tag, even the asking price, in quotes on this, because you are dealing with a proposition that truly has never been done before.”
The new Yankee Stadium, going up now in the
Bronx, is scheduled to open in 2009.
CAA Sports would not comment on the package. Sources familiar with the sales process said that available packages vary dramatically in price and inventory by category. One of the Premier Partnership proposals is aimed at the financial services sector, wherein Citi and Barclays have already made huge commitments to future homes of the New York Mets and New Jersey Nets, respectively.
Only one Premier Partnership will be sold to the new facility.
Industry sources said financial services were hardly the only category targeted. “Given the difficulties in that sector, it is probably not the best time to look for money there,” said one veteran New York sports sales executive familiar with the Yankees proposal. The market dynamics are even more intriguing when you factor in the availability of title sponsorship to the NFL Jets and Giants new home, which industry sources said has an asking price of $28 million to $32 million. The Jets/Giants deal does include naming rights.
Tickets, especially prime tickets, are an integral part of any team sponsorship deal, and the new “non-naming rights” sponsors for Yankees would include access to some of the front-row Legends seats in the new stadium that the Yanks will price at an astounding $500 to $2,500 a seat. Since the Yankees are positioning their new home as a year-round facility, any sponsor would have access to the facility for meetings throughout the season.
Among the biggest signage opportunities offered in the comprehensive financial services package are large signs on the highways around the stadium; prominent exposure on Gate 4, the stadium’s main entrance; several fixed signs on top of the stadium, affording an aerial view; a large sign atop the right-field scoreboard; even bigger signage on the back of the scoreboard, facing a new subway stop; signs on interior gates leading to the field; fixed and LED signs inside the stadium and the stadium bowl; permanent dugout branding; scoreboard vignettes; behind-the-plate signage and a logo on all Yankees tickets.
