Both Anheuser-Busch InBev and Constellation will have beer rights at the new home of the Chargers and the Rams.getty images
Since brewers have long been the sugar daddies of pro sports, any beer deal is important. That’s even more true when it’s at a new stadium in the nation’s second-largest market. So while we’re intrigued to report that Anheuser-Busch InBev has signed on as a beer sponsor at the new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., scheduled to open next summer, some of the reverberations from the deal are just as fascinating.
Constellation will also have beer rights at SoFi, with which it will sell and market its Mexican brews, including Corona, America’s largest-selling imported beer for more than 20 years. While marketing agendas change with the regularity of ocean tides, we’re told by insiders that as of now plans are that A-BI’s lead brand at the new football palace will not be Bud Light, America’s biggest beer and the one usually associated with the brewer’s pricey NFL rights. Instead, it will be the low-cal/low carb Michelob Ultra, which has a legacy of sponsorship with participatory sports like golf and cycling, including a decade-old sponsorship with Lance Armstrong that was dropped after his name became synonymous with PEDs.
The two brewers will share craft beer rights at SoFi. In the case of A-BI, that will surely mean Golden Road, since that brew has an L.A. heritage. Constellation’s Ballast Point Brewing hails from San Diego, so that’s the likely counterpoint.
Another intriguing sidebar is that the absence of MillerCoors offers a window into the current beer category dynamics. MillerCoors is lately eschewing sponsorship dollars in favor of media expenditures, while Constellation is spending larger, but selectively, when it comes to top-tier properties, like SoFi and the University of Texas deal it inked three years ago. It’s also noteworthy that Corona was the first team sponsorship announced by the Rams in 2016, when the franchise moved back to Los Angeles from St. Louis.
CAN’T BUY A DEAL: Over the past month or so, we’ve been besieged by second- and third-tier sports properties trying to convince us of the “news value” of their new CBD sponsorships. Piecemeal, those are soporifics. As a group, they are the harbinger of a trend already noted here. Still, the real question is when one of the big leagues will feel comfortable enough with the hemp-derived, non-psychoactive products to open the category for sponsorship. We’ve already seen properties as big as the UFC do a deal, along with golfers including Bubba Watson, and several cars in last year’s Indy 500 carried CBD branding. Among athletes, CBD use is common as an anti-inflammatory and recovery product. For example, even before the UFC did a CBD deal with Aurora Cannabis earlier this year, around half of its fighters were using CBDs. Nonetheless, at the biggest properties, it’s being described to us as a “hurry up and wait” situation.
“We’re all waiting for the other property to make the first move,’’ said one senior sales type from a large property with a laugh.
“We’re taking meetings and collecting information,’’ said a league business development person, “but I feel like we’re at least 12 or 18 months from a deal. Every property is confused by the number of health claims by CBDs, and the absolute lack of regulation in that market.’’
Across the sponsorship business, Sponsor United tracks 19 CBD brands with sponsorships; cbdMD, with nine, has the most. The report says CBD Plus USA runs ads on Oklahoma City Thunder telecasts and a radio ad on the Green Bay Packers network. The company Blunts + Moore had a tent setup in the Oakland Raiders parking lot during a preseason game, selling the psychoactive variety, but we’re certain they weren’t an official sponsor.
The Wild West nature of the market is also daunting. At SBJ’s recent Sports Marketing Symposium, cbdMD co-founder and President Caryn Dunayer said she competes with “thousands” of CBD brands.
“You’ll see a lot of sanctioning bodies opening up CBDs for use by their athletes and then, later for larger sponsorship opportunities,’’ she said. “The PGA [Tour] allows its players to use CBDs, but they don’t allow CBD sponsorships yet. … Once the big broadcasters open it for [TV] ads, you’ll see a lot of movement. By next year, if not 2021, you’ll see the majority of the stick-and-ball leagues open it up.”
The Miracle on Ice hockey team will have a 40th reunion in Las Vegas next February.Gemini Sports Group
I NEED A MIRACLE: You’d likely lose money wagering on where the 40th reunion of the 1980 “Miracle On Ice’’ U.S. Olympic gold medal hockey team is being held. It will take place Feb. 21-23 in Las Vegas, a town where the majority of the available ice is used to cool beverages.
Every living member of the 1980 championship team is slated to be there for the celebratory weekend, which will include a three-hour celebration at the Thomas & Mack Center on Feb. 22, after which the team will be feted at a Golden Knights game. A Vegas Golden Knights sponsor and season ticket-holder gathering, a golf outing, and a fan fest are also in the works. The 35th anniversary in Lake Placid, N.Y., attracted 10,000 people, and the promoters claim even more will be heading to Vegas. Sponsorship positions, including presenting, are being packaged and sold by Jeff Holbrook’s Potentia Athletic and Rob Yowell’s Gemini Sports Group.
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
