The New York Yankees and Bank of America ended months of negotiations on a long-term, high-profile sponsorship agreement, fallout from the financial industry's decision to accept aid from the federal government.While the sides never discussed naming rights to the team's new $1.5 billion stadium, they had talked about the possibility of a 20-year deal that would have included signage, special events and tickets.
"With the downturn in the economy and the effect on financial institutions including government support of those institutions, we have determined that it is better to enter into a traditional business arrangement with a financial institution," Yankees spokeswoman Alice McGillion said.
Bank of America has been the team's official bank since 1994, according to spokesman Joe Goode.
"We still see tremendous value in the Yankees both in terms of a business partnership and a marketing platform, so it's our plan to explore alternative ways to maintain our business relationship," Goode said.
New York and BOA have seen repeated congressional criticism of Citigroup's $400 million, 20-year agreement for naming rights to the Mets' new ballpark, Citi Field. Both New York stadiums open in April.
"We recognize that our decision not to pursue a long-term partnership with the Yankees reflects a lost revenue opportunity for our company, however these are unprecedented times that perhaps call for some very difficult decisions," Goode said.
This may cost the Yankees some loot, and this may be yet another sign of how bad our economy actually is, but hey, at least we don't have to see their logo every 15 feet in the new stadium.
9 Comments:
Right you are, Greg. Honestly, if the Yanks had allowed those pukes to put their name on the stadium, I would have never gone to a game again. All the Yanks have to do is put a winning team on the field and they won't have to worry about corporate sponsors such as BOA.
Mike
lol guess you didnt notice the all the signs they had in the old place. Corporate signage is not going away it is in every professional sports venue and it will be in the new stadium as well. Just be greatful the yankees didnt decide to make a naming deal , otherwise we would be looking at Bank of America Ballpark to go along with Citifield.
Of course I did. But I also don't want the new place to be Bank Of America Stadium.
It was never going to be , just signs everywhere like there will be anyway.
Whether it's this season or in a year or two, we WILL see a "primary" sponsor of the stadium. Signage doesn't bother me. It pays for guys like CC and Tex. More revenue = more spending.
I can live with a sign if it means there's more money in the Stein family pockets. It's more encouragement for them to spend when the right free agents come along.
A large logo above the RF scoreboard like the YANKEE STADIUM lettering wouldn't detract from the stadium at all.
I can live with it too. I'm not saying it's THAT big of a deal. But since the deal fell through the one good thing is less BOA logos.
So what this fell through instead of the yankees getting $20 Million per year they might end up getting maybe $8 Million... Big Deal
It is what it is.
Just to clarify: naming the stadium after a corporate sponsor would have been too much for me to take. Of course there are signs from sponsors all over ballparks--there always have been.
Geez....
Mike
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