Citi Backs Out Of Rose Bowl Sponsorship
It looks like the seven-year love affair between Citi and the Rose Bowl has come to an end, thanks to that whore known as ESPN getting in the way.
After being the title sponsor of the Grand Daddy of them All, Citi announced on Monday that they were backing out of their deal with the bowl game, and it’s largely due to how much ESPN wants them to pay for the right. Since the business aspect of college football isn’t exactly my strength, I’ll just let the Sports Business Journal tell you all about it.
Citi’s decision not to renew its deal mainly was based on flexibility and price, sources said. One of the main reasons why it decided to drop the game is because of ESPN’s restrictions over when and where it would spend its money as the Rose Bowl’s lead sponsor.
ESPN has taken over selling all marketing and advertising inventory around the BCS game under its four-year, $495 million deal to carry BCS games through January 2014. ESPN has been in the market for four months selling a new package for the four BCS games.
In the new package, the title sponsorship is billed as a season long college football package, but Citi complained that it was weighed down with more BCS ad inventory than it wanted.
Essentially what it boils down to is ESPN wanted $20 million a year from Citi to keep their name on the Rose Bowl, and that’s a 33% increase over what Fox charged.
Citi is the second sponsor to back out of a BCS bowl game sponsorship since ESPN took the rights back over from Fox — and I can’t stress how happy that makes me since Fox’s coverage of the games made me want to throw my television out the window — as FedEx backed out of its sponsorship with the Orange Bowl as well.
As for who will be taking over for Citi, there is no official word, but the rumor is that AT&T will take over. They were the very first company to officially sponsor the game back in 1999.
Though even though AT&T may take over, don’t go thinking that means you’ll actually get coverage on your iPhone while you’re there.
