The Clippers have signed a 23-year naming rights deal with software company Intuit for the team’s new $1.8B arena development in Inglewood, Calif., which will be called the Intuit Dome. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed for the privately financed 18,500-seat venue that is set to open for the '24-25 season. The deal comes just in time to reach the Clippers' goal of having a naming-rights pact done prior to Friday's arena groundbreaking ceremony at 10:00am PT, team President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker confirmed. "We had quite a few pitches and quite a few offers," Zucker told SBJ. "(Clippers Owner Steve Ballmer) said he wanted a company that shared our brand vision that saw innovation as a priority. We were hopeful to get it done under a year. The Intuit Dome is who we are from the start." Design features of the Intuit Dome will include 51 uninterrupted rows of seats and a two-sided halo scoreboard encircling the bowl, according to Clippers officials. The project will also include an 80,000 square-foot outdoor plaza and a full-size outdoor court.

CAA, which the Clippers  retained in August '20 to sell the arena naming rights, represented the team while MKTG repped Intuit in the deal. Among the execs getting the deal done were CAA Sports President Paul Danforth and property sales exec Alexa Cook; MKTG Senior VP Sam Riber and Senior Dir Evan Fedders; and Inuit Exec VP Lara Balazs, VP/Brand, Marketing Strategy & Planning Stephen Root, Group Marketing Manager Danielle Roark, and Marketing Manager Scott Ricci.California-based Intuit markets the TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mint and Credit Karma brands. It has an NFL sponsorship supporting TurboTax, which has run ads in the last eight Super Bowls. Credit Karma Money signed a three-year Rockets uniform patch sponsorship in July. The deal reaffirms fintech as one of the most active sponsorship categories, especially with all the new money from crypto brands. It is also notable that SoFi entitles the nearby home field of the Chargers and Rams. Intuit’s is the latest naming-rights agreement for a major-league venue and comes after the Suns in July announced a deal to rename their arena the Footprint Center. Prior to Footprint Center was the Heat’s FTX Arena, signed in March and valued at $135M over 19 years, for an annual average of $7.1M.

Fanatics will take over online and mobile merchandising for the Cowboys in an expansive 10-year deal, adding the world’s most valuable sports club and a perennial top-seller to its already long list of ecommerce clients. The deal is a partial shift toward outsourcing for the Cowboys, who have run their own merchandise operation, and notably excludes the Jerry Jones-backed Legends, which counts the UFC, Real Madrid, the Titans and Vikings as ecommerce clients. Fanatics has launched a new shopping platform for the Cowboys (shop.dallascowboys.com) and will build co-branded Cowboys Shop advertisements and marketing programs across the Cowboys’ media networks, global HQ and inside AT&T Stadium on gamedays.

The Cowboys are the 26th NFL team to use Fanatics for ecommerce. The NFL is an investor in and longtime client of Fanatics. Cowboys Merchandising COO Tim Burkhart said the alignment with the NFL will ensure consistency and breadth for customers. The Cowboys are the NFL’s only team to handle merchandising in house, including more than 20 brick-and-mortar pro shops, and will continue to operate those internally. Along with the NFL and now the Cowboys, Fanatics operates official online stores for the NBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR and hundreds of other pro and college teams.

Online business insurance exchange Bold Penguin is sponsoring the Penguins in a deal that will put the company's logo on the NHL team's helmets during home games. The multiyear sponsorship includes custom content creation, digital and social media, including a “Bold Penguin of the Game” feature, in-arena vignettes and hospitality. Bold Penguin gets rights in the commercial insurance exchange and insurance technology provider categories. “Even their website says they are powered by Penguins,” said Penguins CRO Terry Kalna. “It doesn’t get any better.”

Five-year-old Bold Penguin was acquired by American Family Insurance earlier this year. With entitlement to the Brewers ballpark, along with Shaquille O’Neal as the longtime spokesperson for its The General brand of auto insurance, AmFam clearly believes in sports marketing. However, this is the first sports sponsorship for Bold Penguin. Longtime AmFam sports agency IdeaQuest negotiated the deal and will handle activation.

IdeaQuest President/Founder Eric Bechtel said that Columbus-based Bold Penguin earlier considered entitling the MLS Crew’s new stadium, but ultimately rejected the idea. “After that, we were asked to think of something else big in pro sports. This was at the top of the list, because it was such a no-brainer. It made so much sense, that right after we put the two CEOs together for lunch in July, they told us to get a deal done. This is about getting Bold Penguin’s brand out there certainly, but ultimately it is about getting more people on their platform.”

HBO Sports and NFL Films are bringing “Hard Knocks” to the regular season for the first time, with the Colts lined up for episodes debuting Nov. 17. The league is billing it as the first “in season and in real time” documentary of an NFL team. For the five years before the pandemic, NFL Films collaborated with Amazon Prime to create the now-defunct “All or Nothing” series, which documented a team's season but did not air until the offseason. “Hard Knocks” has always shown training camp since its '01 debut.

After the Nov. 17 show, Colts episodes will air every Wednesday through the end of the season. In the past, insiders have said that behind-the-scenes footage of a team airing that same season would create intractable competitive and secrecy concerns. The Colts, who have previously not been featured in the franchise, believe otherwise. While future seasons would require other teams to agree, producers intend for both training camp and in-season versions of “Hard Knocks” to air every year going forward.

Ticketing and marketing company Stage Front has two new partnerships around hospitality for the Nov. 6 Canelo Alvarez- Caleb Plant fight in Las Vegas. One deal is with Canelo Promotions to provide hospitality at the fight, and the second is with SportsBox, a Mexican tourism and entertainment company to bring those same offerings to the Mexican market. Stage Front packages include a range of tickets, merchandise, transportation, lodging and VIP offerings. Stage Front, a Maryland-based outfit with several hundred sports clients, will also utilize its marketing and retail expertise to increase awareness of the partnership and hospitality packages. 

Stage Front has provided hospitality around other fights previously, but the SportsBox deal is the company’s first work in the Mexican market. On Stage Front’s side, Head of Strategy Tulaib Faizy and Head of Partnerships & Marketing Mike Giuffre were instrumental in the landing the new deals. Other Stage Front partners include LaLiga North America, the Int'l Champions Cup and the ECHL.

Sportsbook operator WynnBet will rename the club on the west side of Lucas Oil Stadium as part of a wide-ranging sponsorship of the Colts. Along with a club-level sports bar open to fans 21-and-over, WynnBet will have a lounge in the Colts’ “Touchdown Town” pre-game tailgate area and become title sponsor of the team’s mobile app and Colts-produced podcasts. WynnBet also gets radio spots on Colts game broadcasts and an LED stadium sign in the north end zone. WynnBet is the third sportsbook in the category for the Colts, joining FanDuel and Caesars. WynnBet also has NFL team deals with the Lions and Jets.

The Jets will be the second NFL team to sign on to the American Gaming Association’s “Have a Game Plan” public service campaign. Using a “Know When to Huddle Up” tag line, the Jets will rotate responsible gambling PSAs during games at MetLife Stadium and include content on digital platforms. The Jets join the Washington Football Team, FanDuel, DraftKings, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the Golden Knights, the UFC, NASCAR, NHL, PGA Tour, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Seventy Six Capital and Sightline Payments in the campaign.

Get the latest from Leaders’ feeds on sports business and performance:

• BROADCAST DISRUPTORS BULLETIN: China cracks down on gaming, while behind-the-scenes sports documentaries proliferate.

• See who has joined the '21 class of LEADERS UNDER 40.

• LEADERS SPORTS AWARDS: Who made the newly established Purpose categories' shortlists?

• Panel discussion: How far has women's sport come?

• LEADERS WEEK LONDON: Featuring Leaders After Dark at Twickenham Stadium's stunning East Stand, plus live podcast recordings. Check out the agenda for Oct. 5-7.

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Business is back. Be a part of it at the CAA World Congress of Sports, Oct. 12-13 at the New York Marriott Marquis. Well-known as a networking hub, WCOS in a typical year draws more than 700 attendees, including league officers; team owners and presidents; corporate sponsors and advertisers; media executives and agency heads. Agenda topics reach across the business of sports and even include subjects that transcend sports.

You will hear from an impressive lineup of sports industry heavy hitters: Lisa Baird, Commissioner, NWSL; Gary Bettman, Commissioner, NHL; Cathy Engelbert, Commissioner, WNBA; Don Garber, Commissioner, MLS; Rob Manfred, Commissioner, MLB; Steve Phelps, President, NASCAR; and Adam Silver, Commissioner, NBA, plus many more. To check out the full agenda, visit www.WorldCongressofSports.com.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly believes the NHL will “conclude its investigation into allegations” that Sharks RW Evander Kane gambled on NHL games prior to the start of training camp. The league “plans to release a report on its findings next week” (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 9/17).

The N.Y. TIMES profiles the Somerset Patriots, writing under the header, "A flooded stadium went viral, but the home team didn’t quit." The Yankees' new AA affiliate "lost cars and equipment to Hurricane Ida’s aftermath --  and had fish swimming in the on-deck circle." At TD Bank Ballpark, "two months’ worth of rain had fallen in one night." But the N.J.-based team "returned home a week later." The club "harped on being resilient." Just "nine nights after Ida’s visit," there were "few signs that any flooding had occurred, and it was not until the late innings that a musty odor wafted through the stands after the wind changed directions."

Also:

• Grant Hill prepares for first task as new Managing Dir of USA Basketball.

• Florida-Alabama offers a "peek at the SEC's future."

• NBCSN's curling broadcast puts "spotlight on quirky but popular Olympic sport."

• Notre Dame says no to Purdue's famous drum band. 

Last night’s “Final Jeopardy!” category was "The 21st Century."

"In 2009 this 11-year-old started posting on BBC’s Urdu language website under the screen name Gul Makai."

“Who is Malala Yousafzai?”