naming rights

The Selling Of The Joe DiMaggio Brand

Filed under: Sports

Last month I wrote about the multi-million dollar deal for the rights to Marilyn Monroe's name. Now comes news that one of her husbands, the late "Yankee Clipper" Joe DiMaggio is also stepping into the spotlight as a consumer product brand. The estate of the baseball player has agreed to put his name and likeness on a variety of new products.

Bats, t-shirts and other merchandise will commemorate the 70th anniversary of DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak but that's not all. The DiMaggio brand will also be extended into men's clothing and accessories and could also include food and fragrance. The legend of DiMaggio, both because of his connection to Monroe, and because of his legendary sports prowess, is one that has stood the test of time. Even people who were not alive when he was playing baseball are familiar with his name. The 13-time All-Star and nine-time World Series champ last played in 1951 and died in 1999.

Morris Engelberg, the baseball star's longtime friend and lawyer, told the NY Post that he waited so long to make a deal because when DiMaggio was on his deathbed he asked Engelberg to protect his name. Engelberg will serve as counsel for the licensing initiative and plans to be vigilant in protecting the legacy of the baseball star.

Tags: Joe DiMaggio, marilyn monroe, naming rights

No More Naming Rights Deals For Stadiums?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Over the last couple of decades we've gradually become accustomed to every stadium and sports park bearing the name of a business which has paired dearly for the naming rights. That may be at an end for now because of the bad economy. If it is indeed the end of an era it went out with a bang, the new home of the New York Mets, Citifield will bear the name of the Citigroup brand in a 20-year, $400 million deal said to be the most lucrative ever (a deal they are honoring despite recent events).

Stadiums with existing contracts have to hope their sponsor company doesn't go bankrupt and become unable to pay but for those new stadiums seeking a revenue stream these are bad times. As I mentioned last October, the Cowboys have a new $1.1 billion stadium expected to be completed by next June and they are looking for a naming-rights deal that could be worth hundreds of millions. There are less and less companies now that would be interested in a deal of this magnitude. Also where once a deal could be seen as good publicity to a company, now there is the growing concern that such an arrangement might be seen as wasteful for a company, especially for companies which have cut jobs.

Source

Tags: mets, naming rights, NamingRights, stadium