Foot Locker adds QB contest to Disney pack - NFL Quarterback Challenge, Walt Disney sports complex in Orlando, Florida

Brandweek, Jan 5, 1998 by Terry Lefton

Foot Locker has added title sponsorship of the annual NFL Quarterback Challenge skills competition to its other recent sponsorship deals at Disney's Orlando, Fla., sports complex. Rival sneaker retailer FootAction walked away from that peg after five years, citing disappointing TV ratings for the NBC televised event (Brandweek, Nov 10). Foot Locker and its agency, Integrated Sports International, East Rutherford, N.J., had already inked a deal to bring a 40,000-square-foot Foot Locker store to the Disney complex and give the retailer entitlement to track and field facilities there, giving them incentive to complement that with the QB Challenge pact. The April competition, easily the best of the ever-expanding smorgas-bord of trash sport available, will air on NBC in August.

Is a TV network partner looking to buy into Host Communications, the sports marketing agency that sells NCAA corporate sponsorships?

"There is no more outside interest in acquiring Host now than there ever has been," said founder Jim Host, but reliable sources insist that Fox, ESPN and CBS have all expressed interest recently in buying part or all of Host. An alliance with Host would allow CBS to package NCAA rights with its stem-to-stern Final Four tournament coverage. But don't forget that ESPN also televises many NCAA championship events.

"The [Host] board has not met to consider any offer, so I'd be hard pressed to say we're closer to anything then we have been before," said Host.

Noticed how much the uniforms in the current football-themed Ericsson ad spot resemble those of the NFL's Carolina Panthers, who play in the North Carolina stadium that bears Ericsson's name, statement and of the San Francisco 49ers? The NFL certainly has, which is why a new version of the ad carries a disclaimer stating the "teams depicted do not represent actual football teams."

The bigger reason probably has more to do with the fact that telecom rival Sprint is the NFL's biggest corporate sponsor.

The ABL has established a much-needed New York presence by hiring a new sponsorship vp based there and enlisting Clarion/Performance Properties, Greenwich, Conn., to help it sell corporate sponsorship packages. Marty Rolnick, who has sold ad time for ABC television and Rainbow Sports, joins the ABL, which has not sold a new sponsorship package since landing Nike just before this year's season opened, despite having a better women's TV package than the rival WNBA. Rolnick aims to sign additional sponsors by the league's All-Star contest Jan. 17. "This is obviously a great time to be selling a women's sports property and everyone concerned with the league really sees it as a cause rather than a commercial entity," said Rolnick. Clarion is helping the ABL refine its marketing strategy and is putting together a new video pitch for the league, he said.