The U.S. sports marketplace seems a vibrant one in any season, but the current economic malaise is casting a pall on immediate prospects for mining sponsorship money.
That was the consensus expressed by a panel of professionals on different sides of the business at a New York Promotion Marketing Association forum on Tuesday.
“There’s going to be consolidation in the marketplace,” said Michael Neuman, president of Amplify Sports and Entertainment. “Brands are only going to be able to spend so much.”
Companies that regularly divvy up their marketing dollars on multiple teams will play with fewer sides, according to Paul Asencio, vice president of corporate sales and services for the New York Mets.
“The prices are not going down,” said Asencio, noting that the Mets’ ownership is currently spending $600 million on construction of a new stadium.
Asencio said the Mets don’t claim to be “recession-proof,” despite their strong position with ownership of their own network in SportsNet New York. But he doubted the team could strike the same $100 million, 20-year naming rights deal it made with Citigroup two years ago in the current climate. “If we tried to get the Citigroup deal done today, we would be challenged,” he said.
The impact of stadium signage can be parsed pretty finely, as Andrew Kritzer, associate vice president of Sharp Electronics Corp. indicated: “We can tell if the sign is doing better in left, center or right field, or behind home plate.”
Game conditions are also a factor. Referring to the Mets new pitching ace, Johann Santana, Kritzer said, “If Santana strikes out the side, that hurts our impressions.”
While the Mets aren’t feeling any immediate negative financial impressions in their swansong year at Shea Stadium, the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament in nearby Flushing Meadow Park is already feeling the pinch. Two Wall Street firms dropped suites they had held at the annual grand slam event within the last two weeks, according to Gary Jacobus, managing director of corporate sponsorships for the U.S. Tennis Association.
“It’s definitely affected our sponsorships,” said Jacobus. “The conversations are limited.”
The combination of spending on Olympics sponsorships and money expended during the current presidential election season will reduce marketing expenditures in the aftermath of both events, according to Adam Holzer, senior vice president of integrations and emerging media for Fox Cable Networks. “We see the real risk at the back end of the year,” he said.
Jeannie Goldstein, executive vice president and managing director at OgilvyAction Sports & Entertainment, said she currently fields between 50 and 100 sponsorship proposals weekly. To maximize value for clients, she said Ogilvy aims to wrap up rights on all media platforms.
“We’re trying to get exclusivity across the board for our clients so people can’t move in and grab those assets,” she said.
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