Thursday, November 20, 2008
One month after pleading to Congress for their economic lives, executives of Detroit’s Big Three auto makers — GM, Ford and Chrysler — will head to Ford Field and take in the 12th annual Motor City Bowl, which they sponsor.
The Jayhawks will likely land in the Dec. 31 Insight Bowl which is sponsored of an information technology service provider that has seen its stock price tumble more than 78 percent in the past year and recently cut 8 percent of its workforce.
The 34-game college bowl landscape is rife with events backed by auto, banking and insurance companies that have been among the hardest hit by tough times.
Yet while it is a bit early to gauge the effects of hardships faced by sponsors, bowl games and sports marketing in general appear to remain strong.
“We’ve found that companies are continuing to spend more money in sports marketing each year,” said Jason Booker, general manager of Jayhawk Sports Marketing/IMG College. “Sports are the only thing consumed live by mass quantities of people, making it attractive.”
Michael Smith, Sports Business Journal writer, said he expects the bowl landscape to be somewhat different in two or three years but contends that college football is as resistant as any sport in terms of dealing with economic shifts.
“If there is a company out there looking for a reasonable sponsorship buy, college football is as good a place to be as anywhere in sports marketing,” Smith said. “As companies make budget cuts, college football is among the last places to go because for what you get for your money is as good as about anything.”
He said the cost of sponsoring smaller, non-BCS bowl games could be insignificant to the scope of a company’s marketing budget.
Tournament of Roses Chief Executive Mitch Dorger has lost little sleep regarding the state of the Rose Bowl despite almost daily depressing news from the game’s sponsor, Citi. The New York-based financial services company’s stock price has dropped more than 75 percent in the past year and the company announced earlier this week that it intends to cut approximately 53,000 jobs, or about 20 percent of its workforce.
Citi remains locked in a multi-year deal as the Rose Bowl’s sponsor. Multi-year contracts protect both parties but do not prevent a sponsor from backing out should trouble occur. Dorger said he had seen that happen in his dealings with the Tournament of Roses parade.
“Not this year, but in the past, we have seen a long-term sponsor’s business change rapidly to the point where they come to us and tell us they can’t do this anymore,” Dorger said.
Companies backing out of sponsorship commitment is always a possibility, Dorger said, but the attraction of college and major sporting events remains powerful.
“Through sports, sponsors gain a powerful emotional attachment and can attract business to their company,” Dorger said. “Especially when the game is a beloved event in the community.”
The wrangling in Congress will continue. Banks and other firms will likely suffer for some time as our leaders scramble to find an answer.
And in an economic age where the only thing certain is uncertainty, perhaps sporting events such as the nearing bowl season and their marketing are the exception.
If our luck runs out, our tickets will likely have to be pried from our cold, dead, poverty-stricken hands.
— - Edited by Becka Cremer
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