Los Angeles is broke. But that's no reason not to party in style, as long as it doesn't cost taxpayers. The Lakers are now world champions, and they will have a much deserved hometown parade. Team spokesman John Black tells CNBC the Lakers organization will pick up the entire cost of the celebration scheduled for Monday, which will be "close to $2 million."
In the annals of sports marketing history, some of the best deals are ones that make sense. George Foreman could make as many burgers as he wanted on the grill that beared his name. John Daly was sponsored by Dunkin' Donuts and Hooters and now we have the New Jersey Nets dancers auditions, taking place this weekend, sponsored by....Sensible Portions!
Powerful protein supplements manufacturers like Muscle Milk and Myoplex were on an incredible trajectory, benefiting strongly from the workout world philosophy that protein building was not only good for energy but for recovery. But a damning Consumer Reports investigation threatens to cripple the burgeoning business that is a big part of the $2.7 billion sports nutrition marketplace.
Last month, I wrote about how companies and PR executives weren’t making the cut when it came to getting the attention of reporters in this world of increasing clutter. As an example of a company doing it right, I talked about Jack Daniels announcing its new partnership with golfer Trevor Immelman by putting my name on a bottle of Gentleman Jack, with a note from Immelman himself.
Cleveland, a city that has lost its share of celebrities to New York — John D. Rockefeller and George M. Steinbrenner come to mind — is desperate to keep LeBron James, the N.B.A. All-Star who is up for free agency next month. But New York City, the capital of advertising, is fighting hard to lure him-and his economic impact- to one of its teams.
Michael Jordan might be retired, but he’s still the most powerful force in the basketball marketing world. He has proved that in the shoe business and now he’ll get his chance on a video game cover. Jason Argent, vice president of marketing for 2K Sports, confirmed to CNBC.com that the Charlotte Bobcats owner will appear on the cover of NBA 2K11, which will hit stores on Oct. 5.
In the late 90s, a company called Broadband Sports was signing athletes to Web site deals, with the idea being to empower the athlete to take control of their own brands by disseminating their own news and selling their own merchandise. But, in the end, athletes weren’t really on board with writing about themselves frequently enough for fans to make their sites worthwhile destinations and the retail space never was fully developed.
Sports fans love lists and that means that a new offshoot of Dan Abrams’ Mediaite site called SportsGrid has a pretty good chance of being a highly trafficked site. SportsGrid.com, which will launch Wednesday morning, borrows the PowerGrid system built for its sites like Mediaite, the main site that includes rankings of media members and Styleite, a fashion and beauty culture site, and translates it to the sports world.