Yankees, Bank of America End Sponsorship Talks

The New York Yankees and Bank of America have ended talks on pursuing a major sponsorship deal.

The deal was being termed as a "pseudo stadium naming rights deal" because the two parties had discussed giving the bank premium branding in the new Yankee Stadium.

On Thursday afternoon, Bank of America confirmed to Newsday that talks were suspended last month.

A Yankees official told CNBC on Thursday that the two mutually agreed to part ways after seeing the heat that Citigroup was getting for putting its name on the new Mets stadium.

New York Yankees spokesperson Alice McGillion released this statement Thursday afternoon:

"During our discussions with Bank of America, we discussed a special relationship, not a naming rights relationship, with the bank at the new stadium. In light of recent events, 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."

Both Bank of America and Citigroup received $45 billion in TARP funds.

Source: CNBC

Coyotes Getting A Bailout From Glendale

The city of Glendale has been quietly bailing out the money-losing Phoenix Coyotes for several months, according to documents obtained by 12 News.

A record of lease payments by the Coyotes shows the city has been letting the team play virtually rent-free at Jobing.com Arena for seven months. Based on past payments, the break could be worth up to $4 million over the course of a year.
The city is giving the team the multimillion-dollar break even as it tries to plug a multimillion-dollar hole in its own budget.

AT&T On Tiger's Bag

AT&T is the new bag sponsor for Tiger Woods.

For the last nine years, Woods has had the Buick logo on his bag. The two ended their endorsement deal late last year.

AT&T is the main sponsor of the PGA tournament Woods hosts in July and is the presenting sponsor of his main charity event "TigerJam." Yet Woods has never done commercials with the company. Under this expanded deal, Woods will now star in spots.

AT&T said on Monday that it would invest more than $1 billion this year to expand its global telecommunications network. Woods is probably the best spokesman the company could have hired to help them reach that goal.

AT&T is very well accustomed to branding its name on sporting venues and tournaments. The company has naming rights on a pro stadium and arena. SBC had the naming rights to both the San Francisco Giants stadium and the San Antonio Spurs arena. But when SBC purchased AT&T and adopted the AT&T name, it turned into AT&T Park (Giants) and AT&T Center (Spurs). The company also purchased naming rights to the ballpark where the Oklahoma City RedHawks, the Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers, play.

Besides Woods' tournament, they sponsor two other PGA Tour events, including the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and the AT&T Classic. They also are the presenting sponsor of the Cotton Bowl.

Despite all this branding, AT&T hasn't done much in the area of associating itself with individual athletes. They ditched their sponsorship of Jeff Burton's No. 31 car last year and ended their deal with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps when it expired in December. Woods will now obviously be their face.

AT&T has held up, to some extent, in this rocky economy. Over the past year, the stock is down 35 percent. That's compared to the Dow being down 42.5 percent and the S&P 500 plummeting 45 percent over that same time period.

Tiger's Foundation Linked With Stanford Financial

By Darren Rovell, CNBC

The Tiger Woods Foundation has a deal with the troubled Stanford Financial, which is still listed as a platinum partner on the charity's Web site.

At his WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship press conference today, Woods was asked about the relationship, but he didn't give many details about how the foundation will proceed.

The Tiger Woods Foundation has an agreement with Stanford Financial. I wonder if you can explain that and where that stands at the moment and what's going on.

Tiger: Everything is wonderful on our side. The foundation is doing well. Obviously as you said we have an agreement there, but everything is good on our side.

You haven't had any word from them whether that would continue?

Tiger: We're okay.

Easy Tickets? ACC Makes Tournament Tickets Available

In another sign of the trying economic times, Atlantic Coast Conference officials said Tuesday tickets are available for the men's basketball tournament.

The ACC will make tickets available to the general public for the first time since 1966. They go on sale starting next Monday for the March 12-15 tournament, which will be held at Atlanta's Georgia Dome.

While tournament seats are normally among the toughest in sports to land, ACC commissioner John Swofford attributed the availability to a "unique combination of playing this year's tournament in a dome during very trying economic times."

The Georgia Dome, normally the home of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons, is the largest venue used for the ACC tournament, seating more than 30,000 in its basketball configuration. Last year, the facility gained notoriety when a tornado struck during the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament, forcing the remaining games to be shifted to nearby Alexander Memorial Coliseum on the Georgia Tech campus.

This will mark the second time the ACC tournament has been held at Georgia Dome, and it's scheduled to return in 2012 -- the only time in the next six years the event will leave its traditional home, the Greensboro Coliseum.

"Playing in the Georgia Dome provides a great stage for our conference teams and Atlanta has been a terrific partner," Swofford said in a statement. "Having already sold more tickets to this year's tournament than the capacity of any of our other venues, our schools felt it would be appropriate to offer the remaining tickets to college basketball fans in the Atlanta area."

All available seats are in the upper deck. The entire 11-game book must be purchased at a cost of $363 -- an average of $33 per game.

The ACC did not immediately respond to a query on how many tickets were still available for the tournament.

Tickets are normally sold out in advance through the 12 member schools, but the economic downturn made it tougher to find buyers. This will be the first public sale of tickets since the 1966 tournament, the last held at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, N.C.

Source: AP

University of Northern Iowa To Drop Baseball

Northern Iowa will eliminate its baseball program after this season, a cost-cutting measure officials say will save the school about $400,000.

Athletic director Troy Dannen made the announcement Monday, three days after the baseball team began what is now slated to be its last season.

Dannen noted an expected athletic department budget shortfall of up to $600,000 next year, thanks to a 9 percent drop in state funding.

The baseball program is expected to cost around $485,000 to run in the 2009 fiscal year but only bring in about $87,000 in ticket sales and fundraising.

Northern Iowa also plans to reduce its athletics travel budget by $200,000 and leave some vacant staff positions unfilled to help fill the gap left by state funding cuts.

Northern Iowa coach Rick Heller broke the news to the team Friday -- right after its season opener at Arkansas-Little Rock -- and Dannen spoke with the team for 90 minutes Monday.

"They're emotional. I'm emotional, and they're mad. They should be mad because they've worked hard for a very long time to make this program go. We're at a point where, as much as we want it to go, we can no longer fund it," Dannen said.

Dannen said the athletic department based its decision on potential cost savings, facilities, weather and travel requirements and gender equity issues.

The school said it decided to eliminate one sport rather than spread the cuts across the entire athletic department because of concerns that doing so would hamper the ability of the teams to stay competitive.

The elimination of baseball leaves Northern Iowa with 17 varsity teams, 10 of which are women's programs.

Dannen said that the decision to cut baseball wasn't directly related to the NCAA's Title IX gender equity requirements. He said the school wouldn't have considered dropping any sports if it weren't for the pending budget cuts.

But because 57 percent of Northern Iowa's students are women compared to just 39 percent of its athletes, Dannen said cutting a women's program wasn't feasible.

"This isn't a matter of equity. This is a matter of funding," Dannen said.

The team has 35 players, and the NCAA will let those with remaining eligibility transfer to other schools without sitting out a year. Those who remain at Northern Iowa will have their scholarships honored.

Northern Iowa has gone 248-254-1 since Heller took over before the 2000 season.

The Panthers, who were picked to finish seventh in the nine-team Missouri Valley Conference this season, don't have their own ballpark, playing instead at nearby Waterloo Riverfront Stadium. They'll also spend the first month of the season on the road to avoid playing in cold weather.

Dannen offered a possible, but highly unlikely, plan for saving the program.

He said it would take about $10 million in endowment funds to sustain baseball long-term. If $1.2 million could be raised in the next two months, the baseball team could survive for three years while giving the school time to build that endowment.

But since ticket sales and fundraising isn't expected to crack even $90,000 this year, few expect that to happen.

Northern Iowa's final home game is scheduled for May 16 against Bradley.

"I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I'm not mad because I am. I'm angry. I don't particularly like the way [the decision] was handled," Heller said. "I really feel sorry for the players. That's where my focus is right now."

Northern Iowa is the state's second Division I baseball program to be eliminated this decade. Iowa State cut its program in 2001.

Northern Iowa previously dropped men's and women's gymnastics in 1981 and women's field hockey in 1983. Men's and women's swimming and tennis also were dropped in 2002, but the women's teams were later reinstated.