September 09, 2008

Welcome to the BofA opening pitch from the BofA pitcher's mound at Yankee Stadium!

SportsBusiness Journal reports that Bank of America is close to finalizing a sponsorship deal for the new New York Yankees stadium opening next year, which would make it the prime corporate sponsor of the new building. While the details (and price) of the "Premier Partnership" package haven't been disclosed, it's same to assume this will look much like the Yanks' ten-year deal with Adidas in 1997 that painted the company's three-stripe logo on dugout roofs, bullpen awnings, and light fixtures throughout Yankee Stadium - a naming-rights deal, in other words, for everything but the rights to the stadium name itself, which will still be "Yankee Stadium." That Adidas deal brought in $9 million a year for the Yanks; the BofA one is rumored to be in the range of the $20 million a year the Mets are getting for their more traditional naming-rights deal with Citicorp.

And what will taxpayers, who'll actually be paying more than the Yankees toward construction of the new park, get out of this deal? I think you can guess the answer to that.