At Rams' Field, Two Sponsors For One Night
Wall Street Journal
By ADAM THOMPSON and BRIAN STEINBERG
The Edward Jones Dome, home field of the St. Louis Rams, can comfortably seat more than 60,000 fans. But it turns out there isn't enough room in the stadium moniker for two advertisers.
Over the past three weeks, Russell Athletic, a maker of sports apparel owned by
, has been negotiating a marketing pact with the Rams that included the right for its name to join that of investment-firm Edward Jones adorning the stadium. Under the deal discussed, the stadium would be renamed Edward Jones Dome at Russell Athletic Field.
Such an arrangement would be unprecedented in the memories of most marketing experts. Sponsors with naming rights to a stadium usually have the right all to themselves, although there are some cases where college sports fields are named after two alumni or other VIPs. Even so, Russell and the Rams had hoped the pact could be finalized and the new name adopted by Monday, when the Rams are scheduled to play the Chicago Bears in a matchup to be broadcast on ESPN's Monday Night Football.
Shortly before the deal could be finalized, however, the two sides backed off the dual-name idea. The team will rechristen the stadium with both names for Monday's game only, the Rams said yesterday. Russell is getting long-term naming rights for the Rams' practice facility and media-center complex in nearby Earth City, Mo. Doug Kelly, Russell president, says the deal is cheaper than the original proposal, which would have cost in the "low eight figures." The new five-year deal will cost in the seven figures, he said. He declined to disclose further terms.
"I'm going to take that money that I saved and put the assets back in marketing," he said. The deal is set to be announced today.
Rams marketing consultant Bob Reif says the team is happy with the final outcome. An Edward Jones spokesman says the company was aware of the negotiations but didn't take part in them and is "fine" with the one-day field promotion.
The episode reflects the rising value of stadium naming rights, which allow marketers to plaster signs with their brands on both the inside and outside of the stadium. When picked up by TV cameras televising sporting events, those signs translate into advertising worth millions. During the 2006 baseball All-Star game, played at Pittsburgh's PNC Park and telecast on the Fox network, ballpark signs carrying the name of
appeared on air for about 17 minutes. That time was worth around $2.83 million, estimates Relay Sponsorship & Event Marketing, a Publicis Groupe-owned firm that tracks the value of TV exposure of brand names at sporting events.
Marketers see that exposure as cost-effective given the price of naming rights, which can cost between $3 million and $4 million a year at National Basketball Association and National Hockey League venues. The price can rise to $10 million or more for some prominent baseball and football stadiums, according to Jim Andrews, a senior vice president at IEG, a WPP Group firm that tracks sponsorships.
But the cost of rights is going up. "The market is fat with higher and higher prices," says Matt Pensinger, a vice president at Relay, who says rising prices could be a reason to explore sharing the rights.
Still, marketing experts question whether sharing a name would make sense. Sportswriters, announcers and fans, for instance, are likely to shorten the name so it is less of a mouthful, says Rita Rodriguez, U.S. chief executive of WPP branding consultant Enterprise IG. And getting fans and consumers to embrace a single advertiser's name in a sports venue is already difficult, marketing experts say. Having two companies with little in common squashed together in a single title would make it even tougher. "If I'm going to spend money to buy that kind of exposure, I probably don't want to share it," says IEG's Mr. Andrews.
The marketing pact offers Russell more than naming rights. The company will also clothe Rams coach Scott Linehan during off-field appearances, place its logo on cheerleaders' uniforms and game tickets, create branded "Fan Zones" in the stadium to tout its products and develop promotions with national retailers to expand its reach outside St. Louis.
Russell, which makes hooded sweatshirts and other gym wear, provides jerseys to 500 teams at the National Collegiate Athletic Association's highest level, Division I. This move comes as part of a larger initiative by Mr. Kelly to market the company more aggressively, partly in response to inroads made by competitors.
Write to Adam Thompson at
and Brian Steinberg at