Chicago White Sox games will start one minute earlier this year.
Convenience store chain 7-Eleven chose not to renew its three-year deal with the White Sox, which called for every weeknight home game to start at 7:11 p.m. The widely-publicized deal was struck in October 2006 and started with the 2007 season, moving start times back four minutes.
“They canceled the agreement right after it was done,” White Sox Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Brooks Boyer said in an exclusive interview with Team Marketing Report.
Currently on the team’s official web site, home games are listed as TBD, or “to be determined.” Boyer said games will begin at 7:10 p.m.
Last March, White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf told reporters that the team would have to deal with losing sponsors in 2009 and 2010 because of the ongoing economic problems. The team lost Pontiac as a sponsor last year, but got cable company Comcast to take the car brand's place as sponsor of the youth-focused FUNdamentals deck in the outfield.
Despite the promotional value of the 7-Eleven deal, which was worldwide news at the time, the company chose to end the agreement, which paid the team $500,000 annually.
“It’s a fun way to insert our name into fans’ hearts and minds,” Margaret Chabris, a 7-Eleven spokeswoman, told the New York Times in 2006. “We think it’s worth way more than $500,000.”
That feeling apparently changed as the contract ended.
"Not much to say," Chabris wrote in an e-mail to TMR on Wednesday afternoon. "Our three-year contract ended last year, and we have reallocated marketing resources to other programs."
Boyer said it was explained to him that this decision was based on the company lessening its involvement in sports sponsorship. Practically every major professional sports team has lost sponsorships in the past two years.
“It got to the point where they were hit by the economy," Boyer said. “We worked with some great people at 7-Eleven. They liked it, but doing something creative like this wasn’t in the financial cards for them.”
The company is no longer a sponsor of the team in any capacity.
At the time of the deal, Dallas-based 7-Eleven was focused on expanding its reach. A few months before the agreement, the company bought White Hen Pantry, which basically doubled 7-Eleven’s foothold in Chicago.
The White Sox are working hard to retain sponsorships and land new ones with an innovative new addition to their Web site. The Sox’s new sponsorship-focused venture gives a panoramic, realistic view of U.S. Cellular Field and includes video, audio, interactive advertising displays and information about sponsorship opportunities. It is designed to highlight the sponsorship opportunities with the team.
Led by Boyer, the team is also in its second year of operating Silver Chalice Ventures, a wholly-owned business subsidiary that launched Silver Chalice New Media, which, according to a team release, is a "digital-focused division working with clients to create, implement, and monetize new media assets online and via mobile platforms."
Silver Chalice New Media has a number of clients, including the Southeastern Conference's mobile digital network and the Chicago Bulls' online BullsTV feature. The team formally announced Silver Chalice in October, many months after launching it.
More information on this subject will be in the next issue of Team Marketing Report.
