Next Level Sports Marketing

Maryland formally unveiled its sports marketing office Friday, an initiative officials hope will be a launching pad to luring more events and visitors to the state.

But officials say they’ll need support from the business community to make it happen.

In a press conference attended by more than 100 business and tourism leaders, Terry Hasseltine, head of the sports marketing office, touted a new Web site housing a database of Maryland’s 800 facilities and venues, upcoming sporting events and contacts for each of the state’s 24 counties. The Web site can be found at www.marylandsports.us.

Hasseltine, flanked by leaders of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, the Maryland Stadium Authority and Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., said the initiative will help the state grab a bigger share of the $182 billion U.S. sports travel and event industry.

“It’s time we go after that,” Hasseltine said. “We have the tools and resources to make it happen.”

The sports marketing office was created jointly by DBED and the Maryland Stadium Authority in 2008 with a budget of $150,000. The goal is to attract visitors through sporting events from the youth to professional level, boost tourism and draw national media attention to Maryland.

Hasseltine told the crowd that 27 percent of all trips more than 100 miles taken in the U.S. are sports-related and 56 percent of sports-related travel occurs in parties of three or more. Those trips last several days.

An advisory board of business leaders from different parts of the state has been formed to examine ways to create a public-private partnership that could eventually lead to a Maryland Sports Commission. Many sports commissions in other cities and states are funded from both public and private sources. The payback to local businesses is the boost in crowds at hotels and restaurants and added exposure to the city, advocates say.

Members of the advisory panel include Greater Baltimore Committee President Donald C. Fry, former Maryland Stadium Authority chair Frederick W. Puddester and Tom Noonan, CEO of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association.

Fry said in an interview Friday the panel will look at what type of structure is needed to make the commission work.

One major emphasis Friday was placed on the importance of bringing not only big-ticket professional sporting events but also youth athletic tournaments.

“We can do events from the top pro level all the way down to the little guys,” said Ripken, whose company, Ripken Baseball, caters to kids.

The former Baltimore Oriole encouraged leaders to spearhead the sports marketing initiative.

Maryland currently has two bids in for Army-Navy football games at M&T Bank Stadium or FedEx Field in Landover between 2011 and 2016. The 2007 Army-Navy football game in Baltimore pumped $27 million into the region, stadium authority Chairman John Morton said Friday.

If Chicago wins its bid for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games, FedEx Field — home to the Washington Redskins — would host a soccer qualifying match, Hasseltine said.

The marketing slogan tied to the sports marketing office is “Here to Play.”

Said Hasseltine: “We are in the ideal situation to capitalize.”

A week after the Los Angeles Dodgers began promoting “Mannywood” as part of a marketing drive behind their All-Star outfielder, Manny Ramirez got banned for almost one third of the season.

Major League Baseball yesterday suspended Ramirez for violating its drugs rules, taking the Dodgers’ star player out of the next 50 games and putting the skids on a sales campaign centered on the 36-year-old.

“It’s everybody’s nightmare,” said Robert Leffler, owner of sports advertising firm The Leffler Agency, in a phone interview. “You can’t market someone who is suspended.”

“Mannywood,” located in two sections behind his position in left field, offers seats sold in pairs with T-shirts thrown in for $99 to match Ramirez’s jersey number. A “Manny Ramirez Bobblehead” giveaway promotion was scheduled for the July 22 game against Cincinnati.

Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch didn’t respond to an e-mail or phone call inquiring whether the promotions would continue.

“You have to lay low,” added Leffler, speaking from Baltimore, about the marketing plan. “You can’t do things contradictory to good taste.”

Dodgers manager Joe Torre is more concerned about maintaining the best record in baseball this season without his marquee player. Torre said he was “disappointed” when owner Frank McCourt told him the news shortly after the team had recorded another win.

‘Saddened’

“Someone punched a hole in the balloon,” Torre said during a televised news conference yesterday. “A lot of fans are saddened, not angry, just saddened.”

Ramirez, who can practice with the Dodgers during his suspension, is allowed to return July 3 after giving up $7.7 million of his $25 million contract.

He said the drug wasn’t a steroid and that he has passed “about 15” drug tests during the past five seasons. The league declined to identify the substance.

“Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue,” Ramirez said in a statement released by the baseball player’s union. “He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy, that mistake is now my responsibility.”

ESPN quoted two unidentified people as saying Ramirez failed a test for human chorionic gonadotropin, or HCG, a female fertility drug that also can be taken by steroid users to restart the production of testosterone. It is on the banned list of the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA.

Permission

If Ramirez had a legitimate medical reason to take the substance, he should have sought permission, according to Gary Wadler, who chairs WADA’s banned substances list.

“This is a drug that is frequently seen in the world of steroid abuse,” Wadler said in an interview.

Ramirez’s suspension is the latest embarrassment for baseball involving a superstar player connected to drugs.

Alex Rodriguez, a three-time Most Valuable Player, is accused in a book, “A-Rod,” of using steroids since high school and being tied to human-growth hormone since joining the New York Yankees in 2004. After earlier reports that he flunked a steroid test, Rodriguez acknowledged he used the muscle- building drugs from 2001 to 2003.

Apology

Ramirez, a 12-time All-Star, is the highest-profile player to be banned for 50 games under the drug policy that was enacted in November 2005. The penalty for performance-enhancing drug use is 50 games for a first offense, 100 games for repeat offenders and a lifetime ban for a third transgression.

Ramirez, who had never previously tested positive for banned drugs, apologized to McCourt and his wife, Jamie, Torre and the team’s fans.

“In Manny’s case, he did take responsibility and certainly caught us all by surprise,” Torre said. “I hope I’m always surprised. I want to believe in the players. Maybe I’m naïve but I choose to be that way.”

The Dodgers hold the sport’s best record, including an unprecedented 13 consecutive home wins to start the season that ended with last night’s defeat to the Washington Nationals.

The Dodgers’ 21-9 record is the best in baseball, while Ramirez is batting .348 with six home runs and 20 runs batted in this season.

New Deal

Ramirez signed a two-year contract with the Dodgers on March 5, ending four months of negotiations, and will earn $20 million in 2010. He helped the Dodgers win the National League West Division last season after joining from the Boston Red Sox at the July 31 trade deadline.

Ramirez batted .396, with 17 home runs and 53 runs batted in during 53 regular-season games with the Dodgers, who made their first NL Championship Series appearance since 1988 after sweeping the Chicago Cubs in the first round of postseason play.

He was named Most Valuable Player of the 2004 World Series, helping the Red Sox win their first championship since 1918.

“It’s obviously a distraction and a void in our clubhouse and on the field,” Torre said. “We still continue to need Manny. This is a man’s game. We have to go out there and perform without him.”

Ladies European Tour Professional and Welsh number one, Becky Brewerton, has signed with East Midlands-based sports agency, Pure Sports Marketing.

At 26 years of age, Brewerton is one of the most promising talents on the Ladies European Tour, consistently finishing within the top 15 on the Order of Merit. She has 17 top five finishes to her name as she embarks on what will be her sixth season as a touring professional.

Her maiden tour victory came at the 2007 Ladies English Open, the same year she went on to represent Europe in the Solheim Cup and receive the covered accolade of “Towergate Professional Player of the Year’.

Currently placed seventh on the 2009 European Tour Order of Merit, Brewerton becomes the first female golfer to join the Pure Sports management stable.

Working extensively with her new coaches and fitness team to not only reaffirm herself as leading lady for driving distance but also to improve her status in the world rankings.

Former Arizona State and Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller is suing the NCAA and its video-game partner, EA Sports, claiming they’ve gone too far in using the likenesses of college players who are prohibited from sharing in the games’ profits.
The class-action antitrust suit, filed this week in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, claims the games make illegal use of football and basketball players’ names — through the download of team rosters — and unidentified but scarcely hidden likenesses and that the NCAA condones the practice in violation of its own rules.

It seeks unspecified damages for every football and basketball player on an opening-game roster whose jersey number appeared in an EA game. “I think the merits are very strong,” said Steve Berman, one of Keller’s attorneys.

” I think it’s pretty clear they’re taking the players’ likenesses and using them in the game. It’s also pretty clear that the NCAA prohibits that. There’s not supposed to be misappropriation, or an appropriation, of players’ names or players’ likenesses for profit. And so we think we have a pretty strong case that they’ve misappropriated, in violation of state law, these players’ likenesses.

“A case like this usually takes a couple of years to resolve.”

The suit cites examples of actual college players’ heights, weights and other distinguishable characteristics — along with their positions, jersey numbers and even home towns — matching those of virtual players on the same teams in the games.

Unlike the pro football and basketball versions of the games, however, the college video game uses neither players’ names nor facial features. In a statement, the NCAA said, “We are confident that no such use has occurred and that we will ultimately be dismissed from this lawsuit.”

The challenge comes amid a debate within the NCAA over increased commercial activity in college sports, including where and how to draw the line on the role of athletes. A task force weighing the issue recently re-emphasized that they not be exploited as sales tools, though it recommended guidelines governing the use of names and likenesses be loosened as long as it “does not portray the student-athlete in a manner as promoting or endorsing the sale or use of a commercial product or service.”

EA Sports also issued a statement: “EA, the NCAA and CLC have reviewed the complaint, and do not believe that the claims have merit. EA, the NCAA and CLC regularly conduct reviews of EA’s NCAA-branded games, and we do not believe that any violations of student-athlete rights or NCAA bylaws have occurred.”

In licensing EA Sports to make and market video games, the association prohibits the identification of individual players. However, the lawsuit says, the only real restriction is not using their names on the virtual players’ jerseys.

“With rare exception,” it says, “virtually every real-life Division I football or basketball player in the NCAA has a corresponding player in Electronic Arts’ games with the same jersey number and virtually identical height, weight, build and home state. In addition, Electronic Arts matches the player’s skin tone, hair color and often even a player’s hair style.”

Further, it says, each game “matches players’ idiosyncratic equipment preferences such as wristbands, headbands, facemasks and visors.”

Keller was one such athlete while playing at Arizona State from 2003-05 and Nebraska as a fifth-year senior in 2007. He now lives in Arizona.

When he was at Arizona State, his computer-generated counterpart in EA Sports’ NCAA Football video game happened to have the same number. Same height and weight and hair color and home town, too.

Ditto the Nebraska quarterback depicted in a later edition of the video game after Keller transferred to the Cornhuskers in 2006 — with the exception of the jersey number. Keller was initially assigned No. 5 and switched to the same No. 9 he wore at ASU before taking the field for the Huskers — too late for the video-game maker to adjust.

Its virtual Nebraska QB wore No. 5, but Keller argues in a newly filed lawsuit that the avatar was otherwise in his own image.

“Compare the two images,” he says in the suit, “and it is obvious they are not randomly generated.”

Besides Keller, the suit points to virtual players it says could easily be identified as Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis, Texas Tech receiver Michael Crabtree and former Georgetown basketball center Roy Hibbert, among others.

“Last year, for the NCAA Football game, we think they sold 2.5 million copies. That’s at about $30 a copy, and that’s just for one year,” says Berman, a managing partner in the Seattle-based law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro. “We think they sold about 450,000 of the basketball game. And they’ve been doing this for quite awhile.”

Attorney and NCAA critic Pete Rush says he’s not surprised by the challenge. “It would seem to have sound basis in the law,” he says.

Rush, based in Chicago, represented Jeremy Bloom five years ago in his fight to regain his football eligibility at Colorado. An Olympic skier in addition to a star receiver, Bloom had violated NCAA rules by accepting skiing endorsements.

“It’ll be fascinating,” Rush says of Keller’s suit. “I’ve always been concerned about when and how the NCAA procured a right to exploit the images of student-athletes. There is nothing in the national letter-of-intent that speaks to it. And attempts to seek assignment of these rights. .. would not be enforceable.”

Extreme Sports Marketing, Inc. (Pink Sheets:EXSA), a sports marketing and holding company focused on one of the fastest growing sports — Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) — today announced that its MMA Advertising Network has seen substantial gains in the number of impressions registered over the first four months of 2009.

Total impressions for the 2009 first quarter amounted to 10,932,464. April impressions totaled 4,417,131 — 40% of first quarter results in just the first month of the second quarter.

“I would have to associate the impression growth with the continued success and exposure of the MMA industry as a whole, along with our improved website and our growing affiliate network,” said CEO Jason Genet. “We have some of the best affiliate sites, which translates into greater exposure for our advertisers by offering a higher click-through rate.

Endorsement deals have been falling off the face of the earth, but a woman golfer, who hasn’t made a single cut in the four LPGA tournaments she has played in this year, recently picked up a pretty big deal.

Her name is Anna Rawson. She’s a 27-year-old Australian beauty turned pro golfer and the fact that she hasn’t had a single round under par in this country in 2009 hasn’t deterred the folks at Go Daddy from making her their next star to join a roster that includes Danica Patrick and Amanda Beard.

“She’ll get more eyeballs from her Go Daddy exposure than she would if she played a whole season on the LPGA,” said her agent Anthony Rodriguez, who met Rawson at a fraternity house while the two attended USC. “There at ten times more eyeballs on those spots than there are people watching the Golf Channel. I mean, for Lorena Ochoa to get on SportsCenter she’d not only have to win a tournament. She would have a shoot a ball off a tree into the hole.”

So far, Rawson has appeared on the homepage of the internet domain buying site and has worn the company’s logo on her garb since March, but Barb Rechterman, executive vice president of Go Daddy, told us the company will shoot a commercial with Rawson in the next month.

“All I can tell you right now is we’ll shoot it at a golf course and it will be Go Daddy-esque, meaning fun, edgy and slightly inappropriate,” said Barb Rechterman, executive vice president of the company.

Rodriguez said that his client’s endorsement fees are probably the fifth highest among women golfers behind the likes of Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis and Ochoa. That’s pretty remarkable considering she turned pro in the summer of 2004, has only won$62,798 in her LPGA career.

“When Lorena wins, it’s not like she becomes more valuable every time she wins,” Rodriguez said. “No one in the marketing world is counting. Regardless of whether Anna is winning, her picture stops the page.”

Rawson also has a deal with swedish clothing company J. Lindeberg and has a golf column that is syndicated to 15 different magazines. Rodriguez says there also deals on the table to have her host television shows.

Although Rawson made just five of 13 LPGA cuts last year, she does get around the world. She had a top 10 finish in the US, in Europe and Korea.

Rawson is poised to capitalize on her popularity. She recently started a Twitter Page with her name as a handle.

Tony Ponturo, the former vice president of global sports and entertainment marketing at Anheuser-Busch, announced today that his newly formed Ponturo Management Company will make a minority investment in sports marketing firm Leverage Agency that will make Ponturo the chairman of Leverage.

We sat down with Ponturo and Ben Sturner, the CEO of Leverage, to discuss the future of sports marketing.

Leverage has negotiated deals with Kraft, Gillette, Nestle and KFC – some of the biggest companies out there – what are these companies looking for?

Sturner: These companies don’t just want signage, they want a robust platform. They require that any deal that is done touches the influencers. That it has interactivity, that it is inclusive, but has the feeling of privilege and that it cuts through the clutter.

The sports marketing landscape has clearly changed in the last couple months. What specifically is the biggest challenge?

Ponturo: There’s more scrutiny to do deals that can justify a high return on investment. Before this, marketers with plenty of dollars to spend would spend money on a big event because it was big. Now marketers are going to have to justify why that event is the right place to be and how it helps narrow down their target. And properties have to realize that in order to help marketers get their return on investment, the game has to get a lot more affordable. We’ve just been riding this wave where things were going up and up and up. Ten years ago, you could get a primary sponsorship at the top level of NASCAR for $5 million. Now that’s $25 million and, in this environment, that’s going to scare a lot of people away. At those dollars, you aren’t going to be getting the amount of sponsors you want. Now reduce that cost to $12 million a year and you’ll have much more interest.

What do you see in the viral space?

Ponturo: Advertisers are still trying to figure out the digital space, but there’s plenty that is working. You can get a pretty decent return on your investment by spending just $25,000 or $50,000. But like everything, marketers have to figure out how to quantify return on investment on that as well.

Over the last couple months, we’ve seen leagues and teams loosen their restrictions on what they were willing to take. There are hard alcohol associations and big casino ads all over arenas and stadiums that were not there before. Are jersey patches coming to mainstream sports?

Sturner: I definitely see that happening in the next five to 10 years. Logos are obviously on MLS jerseys, but the WNBA is apparently next. At the end of the day, it’s too valuable of a piece of inventory to neglect.

Ponturo: I think the big leagues are still somewhat sensitive, but I do see the lines of what you can and cannot do gradually erasing. Maybe it will start with the NBA putting patches on warmups and see what the reaction is.

Over the past month, social media – especially Twitter – has exploded. How do you see the sports world embracing this?

Sturner: Something like Twitter is an amazing tool that everyone should embrace. It allows teams, leagues and athletes to spot trends, to become opinion leaders, to learn real time about how people feel about the fan experience. In the next six months, I expect teams and leagues to start hiring social media experts to allow them to monitor, initiate and integrate what is going on out there. So anyone in college who is looking for a job in sports, this position might be the easiest way in.

You are selling the naming rights on the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube in China, as well as for a Broadway theatre in New York. How, in this environment, are you helping companies make a decision like this more palatable?

Sturner: In the past, naming rights were used for brand awareness. Now that doesn’t work. We’ve seen that in order for companies to do naming rights deals that have to be able to show that they can get that money back in the long term.

Not that the NHL would ever admit it cheers for certain teams, but the league must be beaming at the results of the playoffs so far. Because in terms of marketing the sport to casual fans, Gary Bettman and his buddies are looking at a huge summer.

The only Stanley Cup final permutation right now that doesn’t result in huge media coverage — let’s call it the “nightmare scenario” — would be if Anaheim met Carolina. This is not meant to besmirch these two great teams; they simply don’t have the name recognition that draws in the TV crowd.

Even by the most liberal calculations, however — that is to say, not handicapping two low seeds against teams that “should” beat them in the next two rounds — there is only a one-in-16 chance the Ducks and ‘Canes meet in the final. Otherwise, a huge pool of viewers is available in nearly every other scenario.

In the Western Conference, you have two Original Six teams from big sports markets: Detroit and Chicago. As an added bonus, both teams come pre-packaged with feel-good stories: The Wings are the defending champions and the NHL’s marquee franchise right now, while the Blackhawks are riding a crest of local goodwill as fans return to rock the home arena after decades of neglect. With both teams facing off in this season’s Wrigley Field Winter Classic, casual fans already have a base of familiarity to work from, too.

And if not the Original Sixers, how about Vancouver? The Canucks are now Canada’s last hope at ending a national losing streak of 15 seasons and Canadians tend to pull for whichever team north of the 49th parallel remains, so northern ratings would be huge. Coupled with the fact Vancouver is one of the nation’s biggest cities and has a fan base growing even more rabid as success on the ice echoes 1994 and you’ve got a good situation.

The embarrassment of riches in the East is just as palpable. The Washington-Pittsburgh series guarantees either Alex Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby in the conference final and their second-round death match alone will bring in big headlines across the continent.

Having Ovechkin in the final would be tremendous for NHL marketers, especially since his personality and on-ice skills are so translatable to viral forms such as YouTube. If Crosby can bring his squad back to the final for another go, it would be just as satisfying.

Boston, much like Chicago, is an Original Six team in a big American market that is experiencing a dramatic resurgence. The Bruins are skilled, tough and filled with great stories and personalities such as Tim Thomas, Milan Lucic and Phil Kessel. They’re also a powerhouse No. 1 seed and the Stanley Cup possibilities involving the Bruins are pretty sexy — can you imagine Boston-Detroit or Boston-Chicago? Even the time zones work out for maximum exposure.

Hockey is on a pretty serious roll right now. While baseball is dealing with an aura of being out of touch (i.e. the new Yankee Stadium ticket prices) and basketball no longer the dominant winter-spring sport, the coolest game on ice is starting to come out from under the radar. Big names in the final would boost the sport’s profile even more.

Former Boston Red Sox executive Michael Dee has been named as Chief Executive Officer of the Miami Dolphins and Dolphin Stadium, it was announced today by Dolphins owner and managing general partner Stephen M. Ross.

In his new role, Dee will be responsible for the business development and growth of both entities and to position the team and the stadium in the forefront of the sports and entertainment field. He will oversee the marketing and sales effort of the Dolphins and will explore new opportunities for the team to expand its brand on both a local and national level. He also will oversee the new initiatives and capital projects at Dolphin Stadium that will offer the stadium’s patrons a live game-day experience unmatched anywhere in the country and will work to introduce new elements to the stadium’s schedule of events.

Bill Parcells will continue to oversee all football operations, reporting directly to Ross.

Dee joins the Dolphins after 14 years in Major League Baseball, including the last five as Chief Operating Officer of the Boston Red Sox. Dee originally joined the Red Sox on July 15, 2002 and was named COO on March 7, 2004. In his capacity there, he oversaw the club’s day-to-day business operations.

“I’m thrilled to be able to add someone of Mike’s background and expertise to our organization,” said Ross. “His accomplishments with the Red Sox greatly expanded their business footprint and amplified the team’s standing as one of the premier franchises in professional sports. I know that under his leadership the Dolphins and Dolphin Stadium will continue their position as industry leaders and provide unmatched service and value to our fans and partners.”

“I’m excited about this opportunity,” said Dee. “The Dolphins are one of the flagship franchises in the National Football League and Dolphin Stadium is recognized as one of the top sports facilities in the world. It’s an honor for me to join such a well-regarded organization and I’m looking forward to implementing Steve’s vision to optimize the game-day experience for our fans and to provide unprecedented business opportunities to our customers.”

During his tenure in Boston, Dee played an instrumental role in all of the franchise’s business initiatives. In that time, the Red Sox consistently set new records for attendance and revenue growth — including a MLB record 469 consecutive sellouts at Fenway Park dating back to May, 2003. Dee spearheaded the business implementation and integration of Fenway Park improvements such as the Green Monster Seats, the EMC Level, the State Street Pavilion and the Big Concourse expansion. Additionally, he worked on a wide range of innovative business ventures, including leading the club’s real estate activities, bringing concerts to Fenway Park, enhancing the game-day operations of the Red Sox staff and improving the quality of concessions and service through his work with concessionaire ARAMARK. In 2006, Dee negotiated the club’s 10-year radio rights agreement with Entercom Communications – still the largest team radio rights deal in history.

In October of 2008, Dee negotiated an agreement with Lee County, Florida to keep the Red Sox Spring Training operations there for at least the next 30 years. The agreement included the design and construction of a publicly financed, state-of-the-art, single-site Spring Training facility that is slated to open in 2012.

In addition to his role with the Red Sox, Dee served as President of Fenway Sports Group (FSG), a wholly-owned subsidiary of New England Sports Ventures, the parent company of both the Red Sox and NESN.

As President, Dee oversaw FSG’s day-to-day activities, and his vision shaped everything from new business strategies to client service. He was instrumental in negotiating relationships with many of FSG’s most significant partners including Boston College and Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM).

In February 2007, FSG purchased of a 50 percent stake in Roush Racing, NASCAR’s largest racing team, to form Roush Fenway Racing. Dee negotiated this agreement and served on Roush Fenway’s Board of Directors as Co-Managing Director. In 2008, Roush Fenway drivers Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth were major contenders in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, with Edwards finishing second and Biffle third.

In December 2007, Dee negotiated FSG’s role to become the lead investor of a new ownership group that acquired the Salem Avalanche (now Salem Red Sox), a minor league baseball franchise that was part of the Class-A Advanced Carolina League. FSG operated the Salem Red Sox under its umbrella of FSG Properties and Dee served as team President.

In addition, FSG also held exclusive sponsorship rights for the PGA Tour’s Deutsche Bank Championship and for the Professional Bull Riders tour.

Beyond his responsibilities with the Red Sox and FSG, Dee was active in a number of community endeavors. Most notably, during his tenure with the Red Sox, he served on the Board of Directors of the Pan Mass Challenge, a cycling event that is the nation’s largest athletic fundraiser, having raised more than $239 million for the Jimmy Fund since its inception in 1980. He also was an active member of the Red Sox PMC cycling team, “Team 9,” which rode in the event each year.

Prior to his tenure with the Red Sox, Dee spent eight seasons (1995-2002) with the San Diego Padres – the last four as EVP of Business Affairs. In this capacity, he was instrumental in guiding the franchise to new heights in corporate sponsorship, ticket and broadcast revenue, and international expansion while helping the Padres earn an industry-wide reputation for innovative marketing. He was also a key member of the team that built corporate and political support for the approval and construction of Petco Park which ultimately preserved Major League Baseball for San Diego.

Dee continues to serve on the Leadership Council at his alma mater, Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, where he played basketball and earned a degree in government in 1985.

Mike and his wife Karen have two children, sons Spencer (9) and Tommy (6).

The Quail Hollow Championship, a PGA Tour event that sold out six straight years, is an unlikely candidate to be suffering from an identity crisis.

While Tiger Woods and other players walk past signs that say “Quail Hollow,” ticket holders have stubs bearing logos of Wells Fargo & Co.’s Wachovia bank.

The scenes around the seven-year-old tournament are a microcosm of the difficulty facing sports sponsors during the worst economic decline in a generation. While companies still want to be associated with powerful athletes like Woods, who ranked No. 1 on BusinessWeek magazine’s list of 100 most influential sports people in October, some would simply prefer to keep their relationships less public.

“Financial institutions are under a different kind of microscope these days,” Steve Rosner, co-founder of 16W Marketing LLC of Rutherford, New Jersey, said in a telephone interview. “They have to be extremely sensitive of how they spend their money, because not only do they have to answer to shareholders, they now have to answer to the government.”

Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf told shareholders this week that the bank plans to repay $25 billion to the U.S. Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program as soon as possible.

Printed Earlier

All tickets for the golf tournament were printed when the bank said in February that it would take its name off the marquees and stop entertaining clients on the grounds. On the event’s official Web site, all mentions of Wachovia have been replaced with “the Championship.”

Entertaining clients during the tournament could “send mixed signals about our priorities to many of our stakeholders,” Wells Fargo said when announcing its plans. Wachovia’s contract to sponsor the tournament runs through 2014.

The Charlotte-based championship, which didn’t sell all of its tickets this week for the first time, is more fortunate than other events. It’s now named for the host course, the Quail Hollow Club.

Ginn Resorts, based in Celebration, Florida, ended its sponsorship of the 50-and-over Champions Tour’s Ginn Championship. The company also cut its ties with the LPGA’s Ginn Open.

The Quail Hollow winner will receive $1.2 million of the tournament’s $6.5 million purse, which increased by $100,000 from 2008.

Golf Is Hit

Golf has been hit particularly hard around the world.

UBS AG, Switzerland’s second-largest bank, said in March that it will stop sponsoring the Hong Kong Open after this year’s tournament is played November.

Jim Remy, president of the PGA of America, today defended the sport in a letter to USA Today, three weeks after the newspaper ran a column denouncing golf as a representative of “what’s wrong with the USA.”

Golf is a “vital part of America’s fabric” and “most important in these times, a source of stable employment” for more than 55,000 club pros, managers and course superintendents, Remy wrote.

“I think golf has been unfairly targeted but it has been targeted,” said Kym Hougham, director of the tournament. “Everybody is dealing with it differently.”

In other sports, the Chicago Cubs had sued Under Armour Inc. after the sports apparel-maker pulled out of its five-year, $10.8 million contract with the team. The team dropped the suit in April, after the company renewed the agreement, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Yankees Price Cut

The New York Yankees, baseball’s most successful franchise, slashed season-ticket prices for a few hundred premium seats to $1,250 from as much as $2,500 a game after the team played several games in its new $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium in front of rows of empty seats.

DHL, which sponsors Major League Baseball’s monthly and yearly “DHL Delivery Man” awards, ended an agreement with the Atlanta Braves in November, soon after the Deutsche Post AG unit had fired 14,900 workers and closed three-quarters of its outlets because it failed to compete with United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. in the U.S.

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, the world’s biggest brewer, told General Electric Co.’s NBC television network that it plans to cut Olympic ad spending by as much as half, the Wall Street Journal reported this week.

The world economy is in its worst recession since World War II and the International Monetary Fund projects it will shrink 1.3 percent this year.

English Soccer

Still, it’s not all doom and gloom in the sports world.

English Premier League soccer club Everton signed a 10-year agreement with sports retailer Kitbag Limited today that may be worth a club-record 30 million pounds ($44.5 million).

Under the pact, the biggest commercial contract in Everton’s 131-year history, Kitbag will provide worldwide retail services for the club, operate an Everton retail brand and be responsible for shopping, mail order and the club’s online store.

As a contrast, American International Group Inc., the insurer rescued by the U.S. government, said in January that it won’t renew its $22 million-a-year sponsorship of English and European soccer champion Manchester United. British insurer Prudential Plc may replace AIG, the Sunday Telegraph reported last month.

Back on the golf course, as much as the sports sponsorship landscape is changing in places like Charlotte, one thing remains the same: Woods, winner of the 2007 Wachovia Championship, was leading the tournament after the opening round.