Shaq's soft drink sponsorship demonstrates clout of athletes.INGLEWOOD - The blurring of big business and sports, where players are increasingly identified by commercial endorsements as well as team jerseys, took another turn last week. The exit of Coca-Cola and the entrance of rival Pepsi-Cola as a sponsor of the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Lakers See Lake poets and Los Angeles Kings The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles, California, USA. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). show how a superstar's influence can reach well beyond the playing floor and into the board rooms. "What happened here is you see the leverage that marquee players now have on a professional sports The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. franchise. These players, because of the salaries, represent huge investments. So they have a big influence on what happens away from the playing field," said Dan Barrett Dan Barrett may refer to:
Last week Coca-Cola Co. ended its five-year sponsorship with the Lakers basketball team and Kings hockey team because the newest Laker lak·er n. 1. A fish, such as the lake trout, that lives in a lake. 2. A ship used on lakes. - superstar Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (pronounced "shak-KEEL") (born March 6, 1972 in Newark, New Jersey), frequently referred to simply as Shaq, is an American professional basketball player, generally regarded as one of the most dominant in the National Basketball Association (NBA). - has a conflicting endorsement deal with PepsiCo Inc., maker of Pepsi-Cola. A spokesman for Atlanta-based Coca-Cola declined to reveal the value of the contract with California Sports Inc., but sources said it is about $1 million a year. California Sports is the corporate entity that owns the Lakers and the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, where the two teams play. The contract between California Sports and Coca-Cola, as well as its new contract with Pepsi, involves sponsorship of all pro sports teams that play their home games at the Forum. The day after Coca-Cola announced it would not renew its deal with California Sports, which expired Sept. 1, the Lakers and Kings announced a sponsorship deal with Pepsi. A Pepsi spokeswoman at company headquarters in Somers, N.Y. declined to reveal specifics of the deal. Officials at California Sports also refused to disclose details of the new deal. "This sort of thing has happened on rare occasions before, where a single player has affected team sponsorships. But what this is all about is how big Shaq is to a team and its corporate sponsors," said Michael Megna, a sports industry analyst with Megna Valuations Inc. in Milwaukee. Corporate sponsorships are an important source of revenues for professional sports teams. In return for the sponsorship fee, a company usually gets to advertise inside an arena and link itself to a team in product marketing. Last week, Coca-Cola and Pepsi gave conflicting information about what happened. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the Pepsi spokeswoman, the company had been negotiating with California Sports about a possible sponsorship deal before O'Neal became a Laker. She said the deal had nothing to do with O'Neal, who in late July signed a seven-year, $120 million contract with the Lakers. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Coca-Cola said the deal had everything to do with O'Neal and the player's endorsement contract with Pepsi. "It makes no sense for Coca-Cola to sponsor a team whose marquee player endorses the competition," said Coca-Cola spokesman Robert Baskin. "The Lakers could not guarantee that they could protect our interests. By that I mean they couldn't stop O'Neal from sitting in the locker room on television after a game drinking a Pepsi." He said the whole episode points to the growing complexity of professional sports. "Sports is a huge business now," said Baskin. "There are tremendous economic pressures. Teams have to have state-of-the-art stadiums, luxury boxes, big players with big contracts, sponsorships, television contracts and everything else. The stakes have been raised pretty high because of all the money that's involved. And companies have to protect their own interests." Baskin stressed that Coca-Cola has not abandoned Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, and still has sponsorship deals with the Los Angeles Dodgers "Dodgers" and "Brooklyn Dodgers" redirect here. For the American football team, see Brooklyn Dodgers (football). For the Eastern Basketball Association team, see Brooklyn Dodgers (basketball). , Los Angeles Clippers and the Mighty Ducks
Mighty Ducks is a half-hour Disney animated series aired on ABC and The Disney Afternoon in the fall of 1996. Twenty-six episodes total were produced. hockey team of Anaheim. A spokesman for the Lakers and California Sports said he could not comment on the reason behind Coca-Cola's decision. He did maintain, however, that California Sports had been negotiating with both soft drink companies for a sponsorship deal for several weeks. The spokesman, John Black, concurred with Pepsi's assertion that the commencement of negotiations preceded the team signing O'Neal. Leonard Armato, O'Neal's Santa Monica-based agent, said the potential conflict between Coke and Pepsi did not come up during O'Neal's contract negotiations with the Lakers. |
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