The Indiana Pacers have hired Shamrock Sports & Entertainment to help the team attract national sponsors outside the Indianapolis market.
Portland, Maine-based Shamrock will work with the Pacers’ corporate sales staff to target national brands in nine open categories, including foreign automotive, household products, tires and home improvement.
“We have nine categories that we haven’t done a good enough job in,” said Terry Tiernon, vice president of corporate partnerships for the Pacers. “We kept looking externally for who could represent us, especially in markets like the East Coast and West Coast.”
The Pacers are looking to turn their on-court success into more corporate dollars after reaching the Eastern Conference Finals the past two seasons. The team has about 130 sponsors, above the average NBA team that counts between 75 and 80 deals. But many of the Pacers deals are limited in revenue and rights, and few are exclusive.
“The reality is that we have had smaller deals and more players,” Tiernon said, adding that he’d like the team to have about 100 sponsors with added exclusivity.
The Pacers deal with Shamrock is for 18 months, with additional length to be added depending on the number and size of new deals negotiated by Shamrock. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“We recognize that there is a long lead time,” said Todd Taylor, senior vice president and chief sales and marketing officer for the Pacers. “We are hoping they land some big deals and are around for the next five years.”
Shamrock began selling for the Pacers this past offseason and no deals have been signed yet. The company counts the Professional Bowlers Association as one of its clients, but this is the first NBA team deal for Shamrock.
“Terry [Tiernon] and his team have done a lot of business, they are just looking for a higher profile sales-wise,” said Brian Corcoran, founder and president of Shamrock Sports & Entertainment. “They’ve got some premium inventory. It’s a nice complement to the rest of our portfolio and a nice blue-chip brand to have on our roster and leverage the relationships we have with some key categories.”
Tiernon said that the Pacers worked with the NBA’s team marketing and business operations department in hiring Shamrock and it is not uncommon for teams to hire third-party sales representatives to bring in sponsors, particularly for large deals like arena naming rights and arena founder partners.
But this is the first time the Pacers have hired an outside sales company to help bring in corporate business.
“It is more common with naming rights or with multiple properties,” Tiernon said. “We talked to several companies. Shamrock seemed like the right partner for the categories.”
Staff writer Terry Lefton contributed to this report.
