Corporate sponsors get more for their money

Sports: Regard­ing the Chicago Bears and Bank One, there was some con­fu­sion about what their recent agree­ment really means. The Bears didn’t sell the team’s name, although it’s not a bad idea. “Door­mat” and “losers” spring to my mind, and 1985 was a long time ago.

The Bears added a “pre­sent­ing spon­sor” in a $30 mil­lion deal that rep­re­sents the next log­i­cal step in the nam­ing rights fiasco. In fact, this was one of the Bears’ few potions, as the city owns Sol­dier Field and refused to release the nam­ing rights.

How much will the Cow­boys, Nin­ers and Giants get for their pre­sen­ta­tion rights? How much will a For­tune 50 cop­many or a media con­glom­er­ate bid for the pre­sen­ta­tion rights to the entire NFL?

The idea is being floated, now that Nex­tel has dropped $US700M on NASCAR, arguably the most pop­u­lar sport in the US next to the NFL. Yes, all they do in NASCAR is turn left, crash and argue, but that seems to qual­ify auto rac­ing as a sport.

In SI, B. Duane Cross says that “[i]f the NFL is going to sell itself out, go all the way. After all, when was the last time the mono­lith did any­thing halfway?” Besides invest­ing in Arena Foot­ball, that is.

Tagged as: Chicago, football, media, Nextel, nfl, sports, stadium