Sponsoring Sticks
Under Armour announced plans to start an annual Lacrosse All-American game Wednesday. The matchup, which will be played in Under Armour's hometown of Baltimore, and will feature the top male and female high school seniors and underclassman, will take place next June. Lacrosse is the fastest-growing participatory sport in the country, so expect the shoe and equipment brands to start investing if they aren't in the space already. The most high-profile sponsorship is the shoe and apparel deal for the National Lacrosse League, which is currently up for grabs.
Playbooks for Sale:
We've reported in this space before that football playbooks are a popular buy on eBay, but they're usually from seasons' past. According to Florida Today, more than 20 books claiming to be the playbook of Florida's new head coach, Urban Meyer, have hit eBay, with buyers paying as much as $102.50 for a copy. For what it's worth, you can buy Urban Meyer's playbooks from his previous jobs at Utah and Bowling Green for a measly $2.
Not Playing Games With Games:
In an attempt to curtail ambush marketing during the 2012 Olympics, the British government has introduced The Olympics Bill, which, if approved, will put new laws into place so that official sponsors of the games are protected. The bill would bar companies not associated with the London 2012 Olympics to make any reference to the games and "would also prevent the combination of Games or 2012 with any other protected words such as gold, silver, bronze, London, medals, sponsor and summer," according to the London Times.
Cost Update:
The cost of the 2004 Olympics in Athens is now up to $16 billion, according to the Washington Post. Greece originally budgeted $5.7 billion for the games. Good luck leasing out those two Olympic soccer stadiums.
Ticket Look:
I always get questions from people asking me how much various events cost to attend. A while back, I put up the ticket prices for the sumo championships and decided that from now on, I'm going to write about the cost of the price of a ticket every couple of weeks. On Wednesday, the U.S. Figure Skating Association announced the list of skaters that will compete in the Campbell's International Figure Skating Classic Oct. 8 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. How much does it cost to see Michelle Kwan, Sasha Cohen, Timothy Goebel and Johnny Weir at the event? For $21.75, you can get in the door, which is not bad, because I have always believed figure skating is best seen live from the upper rows as opposed to right on the ice (that will cost you $60).
Lower Deck?:
I'm a big fan of Upper Deck, but I'm not too keen on a recent card I got in one of their 2005 football packs. I usually go nuts when I get a game-used card and the swatch of jersey doesn't match any color in the photo because the picture features the player in a home jersey while the swatch is taken from the away jersey. So imagine how upset I was when I got a Keyshawn Johnson card, the picture of him in his Dallas Cowboys uniform, but the jersey was Tampa Bay Buccaneers red. If you can't get a Cowboys jersey, just forget about it.
Mailbag:
After I responded to the report that Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert was buying the naming rights to Gund Arena and was going to rename it Quicken Loans Arena, Ellis from Philadelphia wrote in his suggestion: "Gilbert Arena." Nice one Ellis. But I doubt for his money, Gilbert wants to name it after the Washington Wizards guard.
Reader Miguel from Austin wanted to know about the amount shoe and apparel companies are paying for soccer teams. Miguel, here are a couple of the big deals converted to current-day exchange rates:
Nike's 13-year deal with Manchester United: $538 million
Nike's 10-year deal with Arsenal: $233 million
Adidas' eight-year deal with Chelsea (starts in 2006): $172 million
