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Sponsors Come and Go, But End of FedEx Orange Bowl Is Different
Sports Biz, May 25, 2010
Darren Rovell is on assignment and unable to post today - but Sports Biz lives on. Today's special Sports Biz Guest Blog is from Jim Andrews, SR VP, and editorial director of IEG, LLC.
By Jim Andrews
Guest Blog: Sponsors Come and Go, But End of FedEx Orange Bowl Is Different by Jim Andrews
Sponsorship of sports teams, leagues and events is often a revolving door.
Anheuser-Busch was a longtime NFL sponsor until passing on a renewal in 2002 enabling Coors Brewing —now MillerCoors— to take over official beer status. As of 2011, A-B will take the rights back after outbidding its rival earlier this month.
But the recent announcement that FedEx would not be back as title sponsor of the Orange Bowl is noteworthy for the reason why the 21-year relationship ended. In a word (or rather four letters), the reason is ESPN.
By all accounts, FedEx was still enjoying a fruitful relationship with the Orange Bowl Committee. As part of the company’s extensive sports sponsorship portfolio, the game and its attendant events had long been — and continued to be — an important hospitality venue that the FedEx sales force found to be critical in developing relationships with key customers and prospects.
What changed was ESPN’s entry into the mix as the title sponsorship rights holder and its packaging of those rights together with a season-long college football platform that FedEx did not need.
The sponsorship is no longer a sponsorship.
It is a component of a media buy. On its face, this is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. ESPN is not evil for structuring its deal this way; having shelled out $495 million for broadcast and other rights, it is entitled to do whatever it thinks is best in earning that money back for Disney shareholders.
But a longtime corporate partner that was still earning a positive return from its relationship has been forced to exit a sponsorship before it would have liked. And a replacement sponsor—which more than likely is interested in the media buy and not the naming rights—will end up with a sponsorship benefits package it probably won’t know what to do with.
I have a hard time seeing that as a positive development for anyone but the media company in the middle.
Jim Andrews is senior vice president and editorial director of IEG, LLC. For nearly 30 years, IEG has been the leader in sponsorship information, consulting, valuation, research and training. Jim can be reached at jim.andrews@sponsorship.com