Having completed their pitches, three of America’s top sports marketing shops are waiting to hear back from
Intel, as the tech giant searches for a new agency of record.
Sources said the hotly contested review has been going for a few months. Now it’s down to a handful of agencies, including WME-IMG, CAA and GMR. It’s unclear when a decision will be handed down, but as one participant said, “focus is important, but the fact this company could go anywhere in sports and technology has everyone excited about this pitch.”
Intel has been more aggressive in sports, hiring away Visa’s Matt Kauffman to be its head of events and brand experience, and forming alliances with the NFL, MLB and NBA, along with consumer brands including New Balance and Red Bull to support a variety of initiatives.
The biggest of those is Intel’s 360 Replay technology, backed recently by a TV ad in Super Bowl LI, featuring New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady brushing his teeth and cooking pancakes to demonstrate that the 360 Replay technology “makes anything look epic.”
> PHOENIX DESCENDING: The University of Phoenix is trying to get relief from the 20-year, $154 million naming-rights deal it’s held at the Arizona Cardinals’ home field in Glendale since 2006.
Sources say that since Apollo Education Group, the publicly traded owner of the University of Phoenix, along with Western International University and College for Financial Planning, went private in a $1.1 billion deal, “naming rights were no longer a priority and there was some thought that the naming-rights deal had delivered as much as it was going to.”
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The University of Phoenix is looking to take its name off the Arizona Cardinals’ home.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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The consortium behind the deal was Chicago investment firm Vistria Group, the Najafi Cos. of Phoenix and Apollo Global Management, which is not affiliated with the Apollo Education Group. We’re told that new powers that be would be happy if they could just restructure into a sponsorship less expensive than the one that has their name on the door. “They just want to get off the bull’s-eye,” said one agency source.
Two other sources tell us that in cooperation with the incumbent naming-rights sponsor, an auto brand was ready to step in, pick up and even extend the University of Phoenix naming-rights deal in what was described to us as a “seamless transition designed to take advantage of the Final Four,” which will be held at the Glendale stadium this year. However, as was the case before the stadium opened, Cardinals officials want to sell the deal themselves.
With NFL stadia in Denver, Seattle, the new L.A. two-team facility and possibly a new home for the Oakland Raiders all available for naming rights soon, it will be interesting to see who the Cardinals can attract and at what price. We recall with a smile a 10-year, $30 million offer 10 years ago from a Scottsdale restaurant, widely considered a publicity ploy, since it’s unlikely any NFL team would be willing to call their home “Pink Taco Stadium.”
> NAMELESS IN SEATTLE? Speaking of naming rights, that giant sucking sound you may hear in Seattle is from no fewer than three major title sponsorship deals available there over the next year.
CenturyLink’s name will vanish from the home of the Seahawks soon. Now we’re told Safeco, which has titled the home of the Mariners since 1998, when it signed a 20-year deal, is leaving. Liberty Mutual acquired Safeco in 2008. Also looking iffy, we’re told, is Microsoft Xbox’s kit deal with the MLS champion Sounders. Xbox has been on the jerseys since 2008.
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
