SBJ Marketing: Oak View, MSG dissolve Crown Properties sponsorship JV

When the Crown Properties Collection launched last September, the joint venture was heralded asthenext-generation sponsorship sales agency. It was described by the backing companies, MSG Entertainment, Sphere Entertainment and Oak View Group, as "groundbreaking" and "innovative" and the "first global partnership company of its kind."

Even in a business where hyperbole is everyday currency, those claims are unfulfilled a year later.

The JV has been quietly dissolved, with parent OVG taking back full ownership. Pro forma, Crown Properties will continue to sell for MSG and related companies into next year.

But while Crown was established to sell the "most important brand assets in the sports and live entertainment industry," sources tell me that MSG senior management chafed when Crown serviced other properties. More recently, an upcoming -- and yet-unannounced -- project on the Las Vegas Strip (where OVG has been trying to build an arena for some time) brought things to a head, leading to the breakup.

"We have a forthcoming project in Vegas that we understood was going to create a conflict," said OVG founder and CEO Tim Leiweke. “Jim [Dolan], MSG and Sphere wanted greater day-to-day control and to sell from within. We will work with them and get through what we hope will be a seamless transition."

Industry sources said Crown sold more than $250 million in sponsorship inventory for MSG-owned and related properties since last September. Leiweke would not confirm that figure, beyond saying that MSG sponsorship revenue reached new highs. “We grew their business, and we are really proud of that," he said. “This will end well for them and us, but clearly we have other projects that are going to put us in a bit of a conflict."

An MSG spokesman offered no comment.

Leiweke said Crown has six additional clients worldwide (he wouldn’t name them), and aside from expecting to lose some of the sellers who came to Crown from MSG, he doesn’t expect to lose many of its 60 or so employees.

A loyal SBJ reader pointed out that the Knicks jerseys, festooned with the logo of the MSG-owned Vegas Sphere since last October, are now devoid of any ad patch (except a ubiquitous Nike swoosh).

Could Sphere 2, just announced as being built in Abu Dhabi, be next on that space?

At press time, the Hornets, Clippers, Kings and Knicks are now the NBA teams sans jersey ad patches with one week before the start of the 2024-25 season.

A few behind-the-scenes nuggets from the recent sponsorships which saw both the Avalanche (IMA Financial Group) and Islanders (Solo Stove) sign their first jersey patch sponsorships.

In the case of the Avs, insurance brokerage IMA Financial had a longtime insurance/risk management relationship with the team and parent Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE), to which IMA more recently added marketing assets, including the patch (home and away). While there is some in-arena banding, including digital dasherboard signage, the deal designating IMA as the KSE-owned team’s official commercial insurance brokerage and risk management sponsor is relatively light on traditional branding. The pact instead opts for hospitality inventory, including at Avs' away games.

Matt Yonan’s Tigris Sponsorship and Marketing represented IMA in the deal, which took less than six weeks to complete. It's also the latest in a wave of new B2B sponsorships by sports properties. "Teams are learning how to leverage B2B relationships and turn them into partnerships, but to do that, it had to include assets that can really grow the existing business. [IMA] already do lots of business in sports. They just needed to tell that to the right people. That takes a shift of mindset, but that’s something we’re seeing across the business," Yonan said.

Since  NBA team ad patches were approved prior to the 2017-18 season, many deals were loaded with other marketing inventory -- so much so that I've often wondered which was the principal asset (see Red Sox patch sponsor MassMutual’s oversized signage on the Green Monster for one example).

As for the plethora of ad patches available across pro sports? "They can still make sense for the right brands, but the line of companies interested is just much shorter," said Yonan. "Simple economics tells me a lot of pricing is going to drop, but of course, that’s market dependent."

A song of ice & fire

It’s certain that a decade ago, no team marketer ever envisioned outdoor fire pits as a potential sponsorship category, but the pandemic lockdown fueled abundant opportunity for Solo Stove, the company started by two brothers in 2011 with a market cap of around $125 million.

The Isles patch deal was more of a traditional incumbent sponsorship upsell. SponsorUnited data shows that Solo had a smaller package of rights with the team last season, including digital and social inventory -- along with the coveted official smokeless fire pit designation.

Solo’s new deal includes home and away jersey ad patches for the Isles and their AHL team in Bridgeport, Conn., along with on-ice signage and naming rights to a plaza outside of the Isles' UBS Arena.

Solo Brands Chief Growth Officer and EVP Mike McGoohan should be a familiar name to those conversant with unform ad patches. As CMO of Performance Health, McGoohan engineered deals that put branding for topical analgesic Biofreeze on  Trail Blazers jerseys, the  Warriors' practice facility and a raft of MLB and athlete sponsorships.

Other sponsorships for Solo Brands, which is based in Grapevine, Texas, include the Cowboys, MLB Rangers and Mavericks. OVG brokered the deal for the Isles, and since the opening of UBS Arena in 2021, has helped accelerate the club to a top 10 position in NHL team sponsor revenue (up from the bottom of that list four years ago).

• FIFA signed Chinese tech company Lenovo in its top sponsorship designation as part of a deal that includes the 2026 World Cup in North America and the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil, reports SBJ's Alex Silverman.

• US Speedskating signed a four-year sponsorship deal with Union Pacific Railroad, adding the company as a premier sponsor, reports SBJ's Rachel Axon.

• The Hawks have a new cornerstone sponsorship deal with Kaiser Permanente Georgia, designating them as the team’s official commercial health plan provider, notes SBJ's Trevona Williams.

• Foot Locker is targeting a multiyear deal with the Bulls that will allow the global retailer to engage with fans through various experiences to expand its influence in the basketball market, reports SBJ's Na'Andre Emerson.

• My colleague Ben Portnoy looked at how Texas Tech alum Patrick Mahomes helped land the Red Raiders’ apparel deal with Adidas -- while also bringing him closer to his alma mater.