The marriage between sports and advertising has been going strong since the turn of the century. But today that union is reaching far beyond the painting of signs on the outfield fence. There's a new, wealthy kid on the block who could save - or some say hopelessly commercialize - college athletics: the corporate sponsor.
Burdened with escalating costs, many colleges in 1989 are selling their product to the highest bidder. Bowl names are being changed, games are being named after sponsors, stadium sign advertising is on the rise, and, in some cases, minor sports programs are being funded entirely by private and corporate funds.Nobody knows just whether the influx of corporate dollars will lead to prosperity or bondage. In the uproar that has arisen over the funding of college sports, only one thing seems certain: corporate America is on the field to stay.
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Colleges have only recently discovered the astonishing amounts of money corporate sponsors are willing to pay to tie their names together. Perhaps it came just in time. One Southwest Conference athletic director estimated that 70 percent of the college athletic programs in the nation are in financial trouble. The call has gone out for help, and help is on the way.
However, the help comes with a high price tag. Last March the 56-year-old Sun Bowl, the nation's third-oldest bowl game, announced it was changing its name to the John Hancock Bowl. Two years earlier the insurance giant pumped several million dollars into the bowl game, which renamed itself the John Hancock Sun Bowl. But Hancock became disturbed when news organizations routinely dropped its name in stories. This spring Hancock renewed its contract on the condition that Sun be dropped from the title. In exchange, the Bowl will receive approximately $ 1.5 million a year for five years.
The list of events with a sponsor included in the title is growing: the Mazda Gator Bowl; Sunkist Fiesta Bowl; Florida Citrus Bowl; USF&G Sugar Bowl; Sea World Holiday Bowl. While none of the aforementioned bowls expects a total name change soon, they aren't denying the need for major sponsors. Bowls struggling to make ends meet are actively seeking corporate help to offset declining revenues. "I really hate to see names changed because of the tradition," says Penny Lee, assistant executive director of the Independence Bowl. "But if the money is there, you might not have a choice."
The search for sponsors has even reached the high school level. Last year the Utah High School Activities Association accepted a $650,000 pledge from three sponsors. Subsequently, the UHSAA even went so far as to add the biggest sponsor's name - First Security Bank - to its logos on game programs.
Fund-raising has reached near-evangelical proportions at San Diego State, where Athletic Director Fred Miller is heading up a consortium of major universities that hope to increase their marketability by working together to woo sponsors. Twenty-three have signed up so far.
Universities are also begging for dollars on an individual basis. Colorado State dropped three sports last spring - women's golf and tennis and men's baseball - only to reinstate them after a fund-raising drive brought in $125,000 from private and corporate sponsors. SDSU is selling sponsorships for individual sports and individual games; officials hope to bring in as much as $2 million.
It appears money is there to be claimed. But as the money arrives, so do the questions: How much input should a sponsor have? Is the university selling its soul? Where will it all end?
Only your local athletic director knows for sure.
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When the UHSAA landed its mega-bucks deal with First Security Bank, Hardees and the Utah Dairy Council, the agreement was hailed as a breakthrough that would assure the continuation of many high school programs. UHSAA Director Glen Beere termed it "a fine example of how private enterprise and public education can work together to achieve a common worthwhile goal."
After inking the deal, UHSAA representatives made the rounds to local news outlets - in some cases, several rounds - asking that the sponsors' name be included in all stories on prep sports.
At Colorado State, the additional funds not only saved baseball; they bumped up the number of scholarships from six to nine. Plans are in the works to have a fully funded program with 13 grant-in-aids.
CSU Athletic Director Oval Jaynes says he doesn't expect to see sponsors hiring coaches or players wearing company logos on their uniforms. "If someone wants to give us $100,000 for baseball and then says, `I want the money to recruit this guy and to hire this coach,' I probably would not accept the money," says Jaynes. "It would compromise the university. People who give that type of money are not doing it to support the university anyway." Jaynes says he would "be less than honest" in saying sponsors and donors don't have influence. "We hear what they're saying. But we never want to get in the situation where they dictate how the university is going to be run." CSU isn't the only program in financial straits. Three years ago - before NCAA basketball tournament and bowl appearances put it back in the black - the University of Wyoming acquired a $500,000 deficit. New Mexico threatened to shut down its baseball program last year, until a fund-raising drive saved it. New Mexico athletics was nearly $1 million in the red in 1985. But UNM also crept out of debt, and expect to stay out, thanks to the state legislature appropriating tuition waivers for student-athletes in major revenue sports. But being in the black doesn't assure prosperity. Rising air fares, insurance, housing and tuition costs can drastically cut into a program's security. "You're always on the edge," says Kevin McKinney, Wyoming's sports information director. "If you're not in the red, you're always facing it."
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BYU has said, at least for the time being, it will stay out of the sponsorship fracas. But Athletic Director Glen Tuckett is quick to acknowledge the financial crisis many colleges face. "There's just a few ways for us all to survive," says Tuckett. "And sponsorships aren't bad. Just because people are doing it doesn't mean it's not good. But there are better ways, I think."
The University of Southern California may have one of the better solutions. Three years ago the school began seeking private and corporate endowments for the football team, by position. Now 25 positions have been endowed for a total of $6.25 million. The head coaching spot has been endowed for another $1.5 million.
BYU, which is planning to endow its baseball team in a similar manner, may draw the line there. Tuckett says he won't be involved in a consortium anytime soon. "You know darn well there will be a beer company or two involved; we can't do that," Tuckett says.
Notre Dame, Penn State and several other schools are looking at the consortium with a critical eye. "We don't want to make a county fair out of our ballparks or basketball arenas," says Tuckett. "We've always tried to stay straight vanilla around here. We kind of have our way of doing things with class and dignity."
However, for most schools, class and dignity may have to take a back seat.
"People who say we're greedy have no clue as to the financial pressures these schools are under to run their athletic programs," Miller told the Rocky Mountain News. "Greed is where you put something in your own pocket. Every dollar we bring in goes back into our athletic programs, and if we don't find new revenue sources, we can't survive.
"Let the critics go out there on the firing line. Let the critics try to balance a major college athletic department's budget. Let the critics tell some tennis player he's losing his scholarship because we're cutting out his sport. The critics are talking out both sides of their faces. What do they want us to do, roll over and play dead?"
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John Hancock is a heavy hitter among corporate sponsors. The company bankrolls only a handful of events - the Hancock Bowl and the New York, Los Angeles and Boston marathons being the main ones. Most bowl games covet the Hancock account.
When news first hit about the Sun Bowl's name change, letters arrived at El Paso's newspapers, and they were overwhelmingly negative. "There was a tremendous amount of discouragement," says Hancock Bowl spokesman Mark Boehm. "Most of the people here were upset. After 56 years of being the Sun Bowl, it was dropped." An El Paso Times poll showed that 83 percent of those interviewed opposed the name change.
However, opposition didn't exist among the board members. Of 42 people who voted, none went against the name change.
Hancock came across as the heavy in the public eye, but there was relatively little El Paso media criticism. The realities of having the bowl in business had set in.
John Hancock spokesman Jack Mahoney says the company has input as to which teams attend the bowl, and pays up to $250,000 in incentives if the bowl lands a pair of Top 20 teams.
"The reality of it is that TV rights for college bowl games have either diminished or disappeared. Without our (John Hancock) association back in 1986 the (Sun) bowl would have not only been out of TV, it would have been out of business, " says Mahoney.
Mahoney points out that corporate sponsorships have virtually made major events out of previously little-known ones, citing the LPGA Tour as an example. "I don't think it's blatantly commercial to have a sponsor," he says. "If sponsors aren't getting minimum mention, you have to think twice about doing it. But if the sponsor dictates to the organization what it should do, the line has been breached . . . and there is that danger."
Mahoney says calling the shots isn't the bottom line for a sponsor - it's the exposure. "I suppose any time you buy an organ for the church, the donor wants to call the tunes. We're no different. But the object is to get to as many people as possible. If the corporation gets good ink or exposure, it's a realistic way to go. You hope sponsors come in for the exposure, not to get involved in whether to run the end sweep or go up the middle."