Redskins Lay Off 20

Washington Redskins director of player development John Jefferson was among more than 20 people laid off by the team this week as the economic downtown took its toll on one of the NFL's most valuable franchises.

Salary cap analyst Jimmy Halsell also was released, along with the team's longtime director of publications and a member of the public relations department. There were also layoffs among the team's marketing, legal and technology departments.

The layoffs were first reported by The Washington Post.

Jefferson, the former receiver for the San Diego Chargers and Green Bay Packers, had been with the team for nine years, working with players on off-the-field matters during the transitions in and out of their NFL careers.

Jefferson and Halsell were the only people directly involved in the football operations to lose their jobs.

The Redskins are the second most valuable NFL franchise with an estimated worth of $1.538 billion, according to Forbes' annual rankings. They play in the NFL's largest stadium and have sold out every home game since the 1960s.

Source: Washington Post

Philly MLS Expansion Franchise In Trouble

The Philadelphia MLS soccer franchise is slated to begin play in 2010.

The franchise owners, Keystone Sports was recently quoted as saying: "I wish we could give you hard commitments today, but we’re not even sure the stadium is going to be built. If the markets tank next month, then we won’t build this thing. We’ll be out $15 million and everyone goes home.”

Aside from the obvious problems arising out of the recession and the markets, there are problems with the governmental authorities involved in the stadium deal, which is probably no big surprise to anyone who has ever followed a stadium project in the last decade or so. The stadium is to be built along the Chester, Pennsylvania waterfront and is to be a public/private hybrid project. The state is kicking in $47 million, Delaware County is putting in $30 million and the ownership group is supposed to come up with the balance of the projected $115 million stadium. The stadium is to be a portion of a $500 million project that would include a mix of office, residential and commercial space, which, of course, has run into market problems.

Whether the problems between the developers and the county can be ironed in time for construction to beat a further market downturn is certainly an open question at this point. This is probably good news for Portland and a few of the other cities vying for the next two expansion slots, as there may now be three openings.

Naming Rights Firm Folds

The Bonham Group, a Denver-based — but nationally and internationally known — sports marketing company has closed its doors, effective Tuesday, Jan. 6.

The name will continue under a new company, Bonham Sports Entertainment, led by Charles Costigan, former vice president of The Bonham Group’s market insight team, and Rob Vogel, the president and COO of The Bonham Group, Costigan said Thursday.

“I licensed them to use my name in the company, although I don’t own an interest in the company,” Dean Bonham said. “They’re continuing to provide services to our past and existing clients.”

But as for The Bonham Group, Bonham said, “we have closed our doors.”

The 20-year-old company was involved in about 137 discussions around the world involving naming rights on sports stadiums, such as the new, $321 million Consol Energy Center — still under construction — where the Pittsburgh Penguins expect to play their 2010-11 hockey season.

The 21-year naming rights deal between Consol Energy Inc. and the Pittsburgh Penguins was announced in December 2008.

“Dean Bonham is known as one of the forefathers of negotiating naming rights,” said Vic Gregovits, the senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Cleveland Indians.

The Indians signed a 16-year, nearly $58 million naming rights deal with car insurance company Progressive Corp. in January 2008. What was Jacobs Field is now called Progressive Field. The Bonham Group worked with Progressive on the deal.

The company was a victim of the economy’s financial meltdown, according to Bonham.

“We began experiencing problems one and a half years ago when Merrill Lynch, our financial institution, imposed changes,” Bonham said.

Merrill Lynch cut The Bonham Group’s credit lines by more than half and discontinued other credit business, Bonham said.

Merrill Lynch agreed to be bought by Bank of America in September 2008, the deal closed Jan. 1, 2009, after posting about $50 billion in losses and writedowns related to the collapse of the subprime mortgage market.

“After one and a half years of struggle, combined with the overall general conditions [of the economy] it was a result of our shutting our doors,” Bonham said.

“It’s quite a blow to me personally,” Bonham said. “My entire personal fortune is lost as well as the corporate assets.

“It’s a huge loss for all of is and it’s a shock, but that said, in these economic times, they don’t apply just to the GM’s of the world and the Chrysler’s of the world — it filters down to companies like us as well.”

The company had 16 employees when it closed this week, down from 23 or 24, including an office in London, when troubles started 18 months ago, Bonham said.

Bonham said he would pursue opportunities internationally, as he’s restricted by an employment agreement from doing business in the United States.

Members of Denver’s sports and sports marketing community were shocked and saddened by word of The Bonham Group’s demise.

Matt Yonan spent a decade at The Bonham Group, leaving in 2004 to form his own company, Tigris Marketing.

“They’re incredibly well known,” Yonan said of Bonham’s agency. “When I told people I’d been with The Bonham Group, people would nod, understanding my pedigree. It was a good selling point for me starting my own company.”

Source: Denver Business Journal

Home Depot Drops Olympic Sponsorship Program

After 16 years as an Olympic sponsor, Home Depot is hanging up its rings.

On Wednesday, the world’s largest home improvement retailer informed 98 employees in its Olympic jobs program that it is ending its sponsorship of the Olympics and Paralympics.

The innovative jobs program had allowed Olympic athletes to work part-time at the Home Depot while enjoying full-time pay and benefits, giving them time to train.

Three Georgia athletes will be affected. They live in Morrow, Savannah and Athens, said Home Depot spokeswoman Jean Niemi, who couldn’t immediately provide their names.

Over the course of the retailer’s 16-year sponsorship, more than 660 athletes participated in the jobs program; 300 Home Depot athletes made Olympic and Paralympic teams; and they brought home nearly 150 medals, 95 of them gold.

Athletes will be paid through March 2. After that, they can stay in their current positions for part-time pay, apply for full-time jobs that become available or leave the company.

Home Depot had been a U.S. Olympic Team sponsor since the 1992 games in Barcelona, followed by the 1996 games in the company’s hometown of Atlanta. The company currently maintains expensive sponsorships for NASCAR and other popular American sports.

Home Depot, a publicly traded company, doesn’t disclose how much it spends on sports sponsorships. Niemi wouldn’t specify Wednesday night how much money it invests in the Olympic jobs program. “We don’t disclose that at all.”

While other companies also sponsor Olympic athletes, Home Depot’s program was high profile: It had used its athletes in advertising campaigns.

In May, before the summer Olympics, 137 athletes were in the program. At the time, the company had said it was weighing whether it would continue its Olympic sponsorship.

Home Depot’s announcement could signal a cascade of ending sports sponsorships, as some big brand names and retailers are suffering from the economic downturn.

Niemi said Home Depot’s decision wasn’t based on the economy, but rather on finding “new ways” to reach out to customers and staffers.

“We came to the decision the time was right to move on and look at other opportunities,” she said. “There are no plans in place as of now as to what to do with the money.”

Summer Olympic games in recent years have been in far-flung locations, from Sydney to Athens to Beijing, where the big box chain doesn’t have a presence, or only a small one, like its dozen or so fledgling stores in China.

Meanwhile, the company has added on expensive sponsorships for NASCAR and other American sports, such as college and professional football.

These sports appeal to the main customer base of Home Depot, as the majority of the chain’s stores — just under 2,000 out of about 2,274 — are in the U.S. market. The company’s other three markets are Mexico, Canada and China. Still, the bulk of the company’s revenue and profit comes from its U.S. stores.

The company’s total advertising and marketing budget in 2007 was $1.2 billion, according to the 2007 annual report, the most recent available.

Several firms track the numbers. One, IEG Sponsorship Report, says Home Depot spent $60 million to $65 million on sports sponsorships in 2007.

The Nielsen Co. reported that Home Depot purchased $25.3 million and $30.1 million in ads during the 2004 Summer and 2006 Winter games, respectively. Nielsen also reports Home Depot spent nearly $12 million on NASCAR ads in 2007, while rival Lowe’s spent $7.7 million.

Even though the Olympic flame is flickering out for Home Depot, in 2008 the company started sponsoring soccer, the NFL and Major League Baseball. The company also backed Tony Stewart, the popular NASCAR driver in the No. 20 Home Depot car in the 2008 season, and this year is backing driver Joey Logano.

GM Renews Daytona International Speedway Sponsorship

General Motors has renewed its long-time sponsorship of Daytona International Speedway, according to a report Wednesday in the Detroit News.

The deal comes with a cheaper price tag than before and will be on a year-to-year basis, the report said. Financial terms were not released.

Economic woes are wearing on GM, and there was concern that the automaker would be forced to end its sponsorship of NASCAR's most prestigious event.

The new deal was finalized Dec. 19, the report said, the same day the U.S. government announced it would give GM up to $17.4 billion in short-term loans.

"It was a coincidence that the agreement was signed the same day we got the bridge loan," Chevrolet spokesman Terry Rhadigan said, according to the report. "It was in the works when we started discussions back in the fall. Let's just say it's a fraction of what it had been in previous years, dollar-wise."

GM has sponsored Daytona for over 40 years. The Daytona 500 drew 33.5 million television viewers a year ago, and the 2009 race is slated for Feb. 15 on FOX.

Source: Detroit News

Stoops The $6 Million Coach

When Nick Saban was lured away from the Miami Dolphins to resurrect the University of Alabama Crimson Tide football program, he was lured by a contract that was said to be the richest ever offered to a NCAA football coach.

Whether that remained true before this season, I'm not sure. Saban's guaranteed base salary, before bonuses, of $3,750,000 puts him ahead of Mack Brown, who is the highest paid coach in the Big 12, when bonuses are not included. Brown's base salary is $2,900,000.

It's the bonuses, however, that separate the truly well paid from just the run of the mill high paid and when it comes to including one year pay from all sources, it's going to be hard to beat Oklahoma's Bob Stoops.

Stoops' base salary is $2,775,000 and he has earned an additional $350,000 in performance bonuses so far this year with, of course, one big game left to play. A win in the BCS Championship Game is worth an additional $250,000. In addition, Stoops earned a bonus of $3,000,000 on December 31, 2008 for having served as coach at Oklahoma for 10 years. That brings Stoops total pay for 2008 (without the bonus for the BCS win) to $6,110,000.

Bob Stoops, college football's first $6 million man.