Dominating the talk at All-Star Weekend was the pending sale of the Sacramento Kings, either to a group in Seattle led by
Chris Hansen (who would pay a reported $341 million for a 65 percent stake) or to a group of local business leaders expected to emerge in Sacramento.
While the league waits for a counteroffer due Friday from the Sacramento group, Hansen is preparing for a purchase and relocation in his own right, negotiating with Legends Sales and Marketing for a deal to help sell tickets in Seattle five years after the Sonics relocated to Oklahoma City. Sources said Legends also would help the Seattle group identify season-ticket prospects and collect season-ticket deposits should the group win league approval to buy the team and move it to Seattle, where it would play in KeyArena for two seasons while a new facility is built.
Financial details of the deal, which had not been finalized, were not available. Legends officials declined to comment when asked about NBA work in Seattle.
Legends has been working for the San Francisco 49ers to help sell season tickets to the team’s $1.2 billion stadium set to open in 2014 in Santa Clara, Calif. Other Legends clients include The Rose Bowl, the Circuit of the Americas Formula One track in Austin, Texas, and EPL’s Manchester City franchise.
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SAP’s stats database made its debut on NBA.com
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■ COMING OUT STRONG: One of the NBA’s newest sponsors, SAP, made a big splash during All-Star Weekend with the debut of NBA.com/stats, the new statistical database available free to the public. The site features box scores for every game in league history and allows for advanced statistical analysis of players. Information is updated after each game, and links to video and other social media platforms are provided as well.
As the league’s official business analytics software partner, SAP provides the digital platform for the stats offering. SAP signed as a league partner in July.
With the league-based site now operational, SAP is looking to land team deals as well. The company’s pitch is that SAP software applications could be used for both team business purposes and general fan applications.
“We are talking to several teams and we want to make a big play in the NBA,” said Steve Peck, SAP senior vice president of sports and entertainment.
Peck would not discuss any potential team deals, nor provide any timetable for having deals in place, but he was meeting with team marketers throughout the weekend in Houston.
SAP also has a league-level deal with the NFL as well as deals with MetLife Stadium, the San Francisco 49ers, New York Yankees and San Jose Sharks. But with the NBA becoming increasingly focused on analytics, Peck sees a natural fit there.
“There is data available to teams, but it has been fragmented to date,” Peck said. “We think we can help with the fan experience through analytics.”
Chris Granger, executive vice president of the NBA’s team marketing and business operations division, said the use of data applied against all areas of league business is on the rise.
“Anyone who can help aggregate [data] is in an interesting position,” he said.
■ PATCH WORK: Circle April 18 and the NBA Board of Governors meetings as a key date in the league’s ongoing effort to finalize a strategy for jersey advertising.
While the issue was not formally addressed during All-Star Weekend, all one had to see was the logos on the jerseys during the NBA’s All-Star Saturday Night activities to see the future.
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Patched up: Players wore Adidas patches in game (top), Taco Bell for skills challenge.
Photos: GETTY IMAGES (2)
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As in previous years, player jerseys during the Saturday night events featured advertising in the form of event logo patches. Sprite was featured on jerseys for the slam dunk contest, Taco Bell’s logo was on jerseys during the skills challenge, and Foot Locker had its logo on jerseys during the 3-point contest. Placed on the right side of the jerseys, the patches were the same size as the 2.5-by-2.5-inch patches under consideration for game jerseys.
NBA uniform partner Adidas had its logo similarly displayed on the players’ jerseys on Sunday night, for the All-Star Game.
Granger, who is involved in the jersey patch discussions among teams, said talks are ongoing with no answers yet on whether the league or its teams will sell the inventory. Another outstanding issue is how much revenue teams will share from any jersey patch deals. NBA team presidents have discussed a 25 percent share of any deals, but Granger would not confirm any specifics.
“We have discussed everything from zero to 50 percent,” he said of potential shared jersey ad revenue among teams.
The earliest any corporate advertising would appear on NBA game uniforms at this point would be the start of the 2014-15 season.
■ NEW MERCHANDISE PLAY: The NBA’s partnership with Adidas has become more dynamic this season, first with the creation of the monochromatic “Big” jerseys worn by the 10 teams playing on Christmas Day. Now comes the new short-sleeved jerseys slated to be worn as part of the alternate uniform of the Golden State Warriors.
Adidas first approached the Warriors about the jerseys 18 months ago. The team was scheduled to debut the new uniforms last Friday night.
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Ricky Rubio is among Adidas’ new signees.
Photo: GETTY IMAGES
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But don’t look for any other teams to sport the sleeves this year: Adidas’ deal with the Warriors is an exclusive one-year agreement, covering the 2012-13 season, said
Lawrence Norman, vice president of global basketball for the company.
Adidas’ NBA retail business in its most recent quarter was up double digits, no doubt helped by the crush of new merchandising business around the rebranding of the Brooklyn Nets. The company also this season has signed Minnesota star Ricky Rubio along with 2012 first-round draft picks Damian Lillard of Portland, Harrison Barnes of Golden State, Andre Drummond of Detroit and Austin Rivers of New Orleans.
While much of the recent buzz around the Adidas merchandising business has been on the Warriors’ new jerseys, look for the company to make another splash later this spring. “There will be a major basketball footwear innovation in May,” said Norman, though he declined to provide details.
Sal LaRocca, executive vice president of global merchandising for the NBA, said he expects more teams to eventually adopt the short-sleeved look.
“Other teams have expressed interest, and it could be something that becomes part of the NBA uniform,” he said.
■ ROLL OUT THE RENEWALS: The All-Star break traditionally marks the start of the NBA’s season-ticket renewal efforts. Teams for next season are expected to renew at the mid-80 percent range, according to a survey of the NBA’s 30 teams conducted by the league in December.
It’s a conservative estimate that teams use as a benchmark in their renewal work.
“We historically outperform the survey,” said Granger, adding that last year the league had its highest renewal average, at 88 percent.
Among other metrics: Teams’ season-ticket average for this season is more than 9,000 per team, and overall team sponsorship revenue as of the All-Star break was up 17 percent from teams’ 2011-12 season total.
In Charlotte, the Bobcats will be tasked with renewing at about 75 percent for next year. That mark follows the team posting a 78 percent renewal rate for this season, well above the 53 percent rate that had been expected for the club.
Bobcats officials, of course, will have to reach the 70s again despite another rough year on the court; the team was 12-40 at the All-Star break.
“We have been transparent with our customers,” said Bobcats President Fred Whitfield, about pursuing renewals and new deals.
Charlotte is holding season-ticket prices steady for next year. And while the Bobcats’ average of 15,549 fans per game at the break was down 10 percent from Feb. 12 in last year’s shortened season, it’s up 5 percent from the team’s full 2011-12 season mark.
■ JAM SESSION GATE HIKE: This year’s All-Star Jam Session event drew 110,037 fans to the George R. Brown Convention, marking the highest number since the league’s 2009 All-Star Weekend in Phoenix. Good weather in Houston and some new attractions no doubt helped the gate. Tickets ranged in price from $12 to $30, the same as last year, but the league for the first time this year had two practice arenas, one branded as the Sprint Arena. Also new this year was the NBA Digital Village, which served as a social media hub for the weekend, featuring NBA.com efforts along with a set for NBA TV.
■ NEW FACES: The NBA has hired three new executives for its team marketing and business operations department. Drew Cloud, formerly with MSG Sports, and John Abbamondi, who worked previously for the San Diego Padres, are now onboard as vice presidents. Jyoti Agarwal, who previously worked for Bain Capital, has been hired as director of analytics for the division. The department now has a staff of 40 employees.
