The Game: Sports Marketing In 2007: The Good, The Bad & The Druggies

Source: Brandweek.com

Do "bad guys" outnumber "good guys" yet in sports marketing? Companies seeking athletes as endorsers won't hire a growing list that now includes Michael Vick and all those MLB players tied to steroids.

Of course, that still leaves Peyton Manning (but does he have anything left to endorse?), Tiger Woods (does he have anything left to endorse?), Maria Sharapova (does she have anything left to endorse?), Brett Favre, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, David Beckham and a bevy of Nascar drivers led by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson. Plus some untested rookies (the NBA's Kevin Durant and Greg Oden, who is out for the year with a knee injury; and golf's Michelle Wie), retreads (Kobe Bryant), Olym-pians who surface once every four years and retired guys whose impact with young consumers is becoming more distant (Dan Marino, Troy Aikman and, even, Michael Jordan).

Former Sen. George Mitchell's report on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball, released last week, added Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Eric Gagne, Miguel Tejada and Paul Lo Duca to the list of we-won't-touch-them-with-a-ten-foot-pole. They join Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Mark McGwire, Mike Tyson and discredited 2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis (but, really, who was signing him anyway?).

According to an informal poll by Brandweek among industry experts involved with sports and entertainment marketing, endorsements and sponsorships, the top story of 2007 was the Mitchell investigation and report, with Bonds cited as the athlete who is the public face of that investigation.

"Corporations pulling marketing and promotion off of the Barry Bonds home run chase during the 2007 baseball season [tops my list]," said Robert Tuchman, president at TSE Sports & Entertainment, New York. Next on his list was secondary ticketing emerging as the hottest avenue of revenue growth. "With the NFL and NHL signing leaguewide deals [and] the sale of StubHub to eBay for $310 million, the entire sports ticketing industry is on an uptick."

Also among Tuchman's top stories were the luxury stadium being built in Dallas' winning the Super Bowl XLV bid and the debate over whether college football should create a playoff system to decide a national champion.

Alex Rodriguez re-signing with the New York Yankees, done, in effect, without his agent (Scott Boras), moved the marketing needle for Howe Burch, evp-integrated marketing at TBC Advertising, Baltimore. Burch also cited Earnhardt joining Hendricks Motorsports and Beckham coming to the U.S.

Some of 2007's events will continue into 2008. Burch named the ongoing impasse be-tween the NFL Network and cable operators. That situation drew attention last month when the cable network had exclusive broadcast rights to a highly anticipated game between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers. Although it was seen by more than 10 million viewers, that was less than a third of those who saw the Indianapolis Colts play the New England Patriots on CBS earlier in November, per ACNielsen, New York. NFL Network currently has deals with operators that put it in 43 million homes, fewer than 40% of U.S. households with TVs.

Looking ahead, Tuchman said the top story of 2007 could morph into the top story of 2008: "The impact that Sen. George Mitchell's report will have on contracts, endorsement dollars and records."