(SMA XVII) Chicago, IL November 6-8, 2019 Exploring Attitudes Toward Naming-Rights A
2019 Sport Marketing Association Conference (SMA XVII) Exploring Attitudes toward Naming-rights and Jersey Sponsors for an NBA Team Terry Eddy, University of Windsor Jean-Francois Scraire, University of Windsor Keifer Bell, University of Windsor James Caron, University of Windsor Wednesday, November 6, 2019 25-minute oral presentation 4:30-4:55 PM, Chi. River (A, B, C) (including questions) Naming-rights and jersey sponsorships are two forms of activation that have become important revenue streams for sport organizations across the globe. The naming-rights market is highly developed in North America (Eddy, 2014), with over 80% of the facilities used by the four major professional sport leagues bearing corporate names. On the other hand, although jersey/shirt sponsorship is omnipresent globally, it is relatively new in North America (Jensen et al., 2012). In 2007, the MLS became the first North American professional league to place corporate logos on jerseys (Jensen et al., 2012), and the NBA became the first of the four major leagues to allow jersey sponsorship in 2017. Interest in becoming naming-rights or jersey sponsors from new and existing league partners, as well as continued price escalation, suggests these forms of activation are considered premium marketing vehicles. For example, the San Antonio Spurs’ jersey deal represented an upsell to Frost Bank, a Spurs sponsor since 1973 (Wolkenbrod, 2018). Similarly, State Farm, a long-time NBA sponsor, only recently enter the naming-rights space, purchasing naming-rights to the Atlanta Hawks’ arena in 2018 (Sunnucks, 2018). Current NBA jersey sponsorships have cost brands in the range of $5-20 million annually (Lefton & Lombardo, 2019), which is comparable to the figures for naming-rights of NBA venues.
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