MLB All-Star Game: No. 1 Corporate Hotspot

The summer classic beat out the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and Super Bowl XLII in most requested tickets for employee incentive programs or client entertainment.

By: Hilary Potkewitz

Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game scheduled for Yankee Stadium in July has become the hottest ticket of the year for big companies, according to a nationwide survey of more than 250 corporate travel managers released this month.

The summer classic beat out the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, AZ, in the ranking of the most requested tickets for employee incentive programs or client entertainment. Aside from bragging rights, the survey puts New York in the position to benefit from the big bucks companies will lavish of dinners and other activities the weekend of the game. Companies typically bring 10 to 20 people on such trips, and usually end up spending between $50,000 and $100,000, including tickets, hotel, meals, transportation and VIP events.

It’s the first time the Big Apple has ever ranked among the top ten in the three-year old Tuchman Sports Event Index, compiled by Manhattan-based corporate travel planner TSE Sports & Entertainment. And this year the city has two events on the list, the other being the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament— ranked 10th.

The retirement of one of baseball’s most famous stadiums—and the fact that the Olympics is taking place on the other side of the globe this year—both contributed to the companies’ choices, according to the survey.

“New York doesn’t get a lot of major sports events,” notes TSE President Robert Tuchman. “We never get the Super Bowl and we’re never going to get a final-four (basketball) game.”

That is not because the Big Apple isn’t sporty enough, he says, but because events here can get lost in the shuffle. Sponsors of big-league events fear that their sponsorship dollars will not speak loud enough to be heard in New York.