Less than a year after
Sprint made public its plans to drop its pricey title sponsorship of NASCAR’s top circuit after the 2016 season, the No. 3 carrier is walking away from the NBA. Sprint officials told the NBA last Wednesday that the company will not renew the four-year, $222 million NBA sponsorship it signed during the 2011 lockout, which was then the largest sponsorship deal in league history. That deal included NBA and D-League rights, along with WNBA and D-League partnerships, and status as the first “marquee partner” for the WNBA, which included branding on all jerseys.
Similar to its rationale in exiting NASCAR after next season, Sprint is focusing its energy and resources on network infrastructure improvements. Sprint has also been discounting heavily since late last year offering to cut the service bills in half of customers who switch from AT&T or Verizon Wireless.
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Title sponsorship of the celebrity game that’s part of All-Star Weekend is among the pieces of Sprint’s deal with the NBA.
Photo by: NBAE / GETTY IMAGES
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Recent courtship by the NBA of Sprint included hosting President and CEO
Marcelo Claure at the NBA Finals last month. Claure was named to that position last August, after which Sprint announced it would end its NASCAR title deal, which began in 2004 with Nextel, acquired by Sprint in 2005.
Some recent industry forecasts show Sprint slipping from its long-held third place behind T-Mobile into fourth place in subscribers. Others say T-Mobile will have the No. 3 spot for itself before the year is out.
As for a replacement, even before Sprint officially walked, the NBA wireless rights were being shopped, according to several agency sources. T-Mobile was an agile and aggressive NBA marketing partner when it was a league sponsor from 2005 to 2011. The question is whether T-Mobile, now in the third year of a three-year sponsorship with MLB, will renew, and further, whether the “uncarrier” would then take on an additional sports sponsorship, when it has always focused on a singular property.
Agency sources tell us that there’s been some talk about bifurcating the wireless telecom category into separate packages of content and marketing rights. We find that of great interest, since we expect big sports sponsorships to eventually be delineated along content lines, instead of their standard category definitions. However, that gets even more intriguing when you factor in all the reports of Dish Network eyeing T-Mobile for an acquisition. Even with all the money in wireless and the talk of morphing content and sponsorship rights, though, we have yet to be shown any data convincing us that content is an important factor for consumers choosing a cell carrier.
The NBA is on such a roll, both on and off the court, that we don’t expect it to have much of a problem finding a replacement. However, this is a category where the big players have started to shed big sponsorships. Verizon is top heavy with its IndyCar Series title sponsorship and its massive NFL rights deal. That leaves AT&T. Under a previous corporate structure, AT&T was an NBA sponsor, but that was back in the days when long-distance was a profitable business. However, we note that AT&T is a U.S. Olympic Committee sponsor and wonder whether the carrier would feel comfortable adding more sponsorship inventory entering an Olympic year.
> LOOKING UNDER THE HOOD: Other than the magnitude and the fact that Hyundai is yet another Korean nameplate, some of the most interesting facets about the NFL’s recent four-year official auto deal with Hyundai are what didn’t sell. While Hyundai will be presenting sponsor of NFL Kickoff and has official auto/SUV and luxury car designations, the NFL still can sell a truck deal. It’s also fascinating that the Hyundai pact did not include the on-field presentation of a car to the Super Bowl MVP. That celebration could go to the next official truck, if there is one, or elsewhere.
“With a charitable gift overlay to a cause of the players’ choice, we think this could work with any category, maybe even seasonlong and not just auto or truck,” said Renie Anderson, the NFL’s senior vice president of sponsorship and partnership management. Specific to Hyundai, Anderson said “they have a clear focus on women and millennials and we have a focus in that space as far as growing our fan base.”
Having filled one of the biggest categories in marketing, Anderson said the league is now targeting health insurance, timing and further technology partners as new opportunities.
After four years of orchestrating Hyundai’s college football sponsorship platform, which included 17 team deals with the likes of Alabama, Tennessee, USC and Oregon, Hyundai sponsorship agency Advantage International gets a bit more notoriety with this deal, which agency President Tom Haidinger said took around six months to complete.
“This will be all about increasing brand perception and purchase consideration,” Haidinger said, adding that he expects to sign “a few” NFL team deals for Hyundai. “This is a brand with models from $15,000 to $80,000, so we want to communicate the size of the portfolio. There’s a big loyalty play here: Current owners continue to buy Hyundai. Among those who don’t know the brand, there’s a gap. This [the NFL rights] is a new opportunity to close that gap.”
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TrueCar will put its name on the World Series of Beach Volleyball stadium.
Photo by: HOLLY STEIN
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> BEACH BASH: In an unusual stadium naming-rights deal that will last only the six days of the Long Beach, Calif., event, auto pricing website
TrueCar has signed a multiyear deal as a lead sponsor of the Aug. 18-23 World Series of Beach Volleyball, with rights that include title sponsorship of “TrueCar Court,” a 3,500-seat temporary stadium that will be built on Alamitos Beach and be heavily branded.
The Asics-titled tourney/music fest, approaching its third year and owned by NBC and former AVP Commissioner Leonard Armato, is the last Olympic qualifier in the U.S. for beach volleyball before next year’s Olympic Games in Brazil. Olympic medalists Kerri Walsh Jennings, Phil Dalhausser and April Ross will play and the event will get a minimum of 14 hours of TV coverage on NBC networks, including 90-minute shows on the flagship net Aug. 22 and 23.
“We were looking to find a way to add value for a new sponsor, both for TV and on-site exposure,” Armato said. “This is something that we think is innovative and untested.”
Other sponsors for the tourney include Bud Light, Barefoot Wines and Paul Mitchell, three longtime supporters of beach volleyball. Other corporate patrons: Fiat, JetBlue, Quicken Loans and the MGM Grand. Horizon Media has tied on as a way to showcase the abilities of its various units, including Scout Sports & Entertainment, the InsideOut event production unit and Bungalow Horizon, which is working on branded content.
Last year, the World Series of Beach Volleyball, which is free outside of limited premium seating, attracted more than 51,000 spectators. Armato said that this time around, he’s expecting at least 60,000 people over the six days.
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MILLER
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> COMINGS & GOINGS: Jason Miller, Miami Dolphins managing director of corporate partnerships, activation and media sales, is joining
Premier Partnerships as senior vice president of corporate partnerships and head of Premier’s New York offices. Miller has been with the Dolphins since 2010. … Former
Gatorade sports marketing chief
John Shea joins the sports division at
Teneo Sports as managing director of marketing. Shea, a past SportsBusiness Journal Forty Under 40 honoree, had been with
PepsiCo since 2003. … Former NBAer
Peter Land joins New York City-based PR shop
Finsbury as a partner. He was last with
AOL as senior vice president of corporate communications. …
Bill Nielsen joins
Raptor Sports as senior vice president of sales for the company’s
Fan Manager platform, which combines data feeds from ticketing, concessions and social media. He’d been with
Nielsen Scarborough for 16 years. …
Dany Berghoff joins
RSR Partners, Greenwich Conn., as a principal in the executive search firm’s sports practice. He had been with
The Paley Center for Media and before that
21 Sports Marketing and Entertainment.
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
