Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Disney-MLB • League had been seeking alliance for about a decade to harness Disney's retail power fROM PAGE 1 Th e licensing pro gram will include caps, a pparel, novelt ies and possib ly childre n's footwear. While some limited product combining Mickey Mou se a nd other classi c Disn ey cartoon characters with MLB logos could be at retail as soon as next month, th e pro gram will officia lly la un ch at retail in and aro un d th e J uly 13 All-Star Game being held in Disn ey's hometown of Anaheim. Ano ther part of the agreeme nt will see Mickey Mouse/MLBstatues placed throughout Anaheim during All-Star Week, sim ilar to the Gat eway Arch models scattered aroun d St. Loui s last July and th e Statue of Liberty/ MLB-Iogoed re plicas around New York Cit y during th e 2008 All-Sta r Game. About 67,000 lO-inch-tall re plicas of those MLB Statues of Liberty were sold. Given th e power of Mickey Mouse and other ven erable Disney cartoon characters at retail, MLB hopes that 100,000 of th ose replica statues will be purchased this year. Becau se of Disney 's enormo us power at reta il globally, MLB has been seeking an al liance for about a decad e. "Kids are always a maj or focu s as baseball, or any sports pro perty, looks to bring m ore fans und er its umbrell a and into its park," sa id one sen ior licen sing executive with knowledge of th e deal . "That's why th is works so well for th em ." Sources pointed to Stephen Te glas, vice presid ent an d general manager of Fas h ion & Home for Disne y Consumer Products, an d Howard Sm ith , MLB sen ior vice pre sid ent of licen sing. as th e principal architec ts of the deal. Disn ey's $30 billi on in annual global consumer prod ucts sales is n ine to 10 tim es that of MLB's. Baseball an d its licensees should get a huge boost from sales gene rate d by All-Star Game-related merchandise,but the Sources pointed to Stephen Teglas, vice president and general manager of Fashion & Home for Disney Consumer Products, and Howard Smith, MLB senior vice president of licensing, as the principal architects ofthe deal. Mickey Mouse/MLB statues will be placed throughout Anaheim duringAll-Star Week, similar to the replicas of the Statue of Liberty used in New York Cityfor the 2008 event. program is designed to last longer than th at. For example,there has already been talk of sp ring tra ining-them ed prod ucts for next year's Grapefr uit League season. Som e of MLB's largest licen sees have signed on , includ ing on-field ca p ri gh ts holder New Era, as well as VF, whose Majestic Athleti c brand holds excl us ive MLB uniform ri ghts. Also in th e mix is New Era' s 5th & Ocean a pparel brand, along with novelty/ accessory licensee Team Beans/ For ever Collectibles, which will make th e ManU • Team last toured the U.S. in 2004 Mickey Mouse/MLB statues. There will also be cross-licensed pins and plush. As ide fr om sales ga ined by combin ing some of th e most powerful logos in licen sed products, th e deal sho ul d in cre ase distri bution for eac h licen sor. It will pus h sales of Disn ey product into the spo r ti ng goods specialty channel, where MLB has a strong pr esen ce. Th e Disn ey-MLB merch andise will also be sold in MLB parks and team st ore s. Conversely, the cross- licensed merchandise will also be sold in Disn ey parks, thro ugh th e hundreds of Disn ey-branded mall-based stores and poss ibly in Disney's departmen t store dis tribution channels. an area where MLB licen ses are wea k. "The ga me being in Anaheim means th ere will be a good market for event-based merchandise, and beyond that, nothing's more ap ple pie an d America than baseball and Disn ey," sa id Gene Goldberg, former NFL consumer products vice president and now an ind ependent cons ultant. Goldbe rg recalled th e NFL doing some lim ited-event merchandise wit h Disney,but never a full blown program. "One of the prob lems [Dis- ney] had with th e NFL was that we were doing cross-lice nses with quite a few characters, so as lon g as th ey keep it spe cial, it shoul d work ." Cross-lice ns ing is not new, but Disn ey is as protective of its marks as any big merchan diser, so any deal is significant. Crosslicen sing for large sports prop erties was a byproduct of the 19905 licensing boom.MLB cross-lice nsed with Snoopy and Pean uts, Looney Tunes and Bett y Boop, Th e NHL had a kids line w ith the Mu ppets, wh ile th e NFL combined its intellectual prope rty with classic ca r too ns such as Th e Flintston es, Looney Tunes, Garfield an d Th e Pink Panther. " Both compa nies have to back down a little on th eir normal percentages to mak e these deal s work, but it's also im porta nt for th em to use what is essentially a new brand [combined] on new products to further exte nd th e cac he t," said ind ependent licensin g consultant David Schreff, wh o marshaled sim ilar deals whil e se rv ing as president of the NBA:s media and marketing group and president and COO of Marvel En terta inmen t, now owned by Disn ey. "If th e licen se extends th at far, there sho ul d also bea real opportunity in baseball -Disney premiums." The licen sing relation ship with Disn ey is th e latest evolution of wh at appears to be swelling business ti es with MLB. Disn ey 's ESPN unit is a lon gtime MLB rights holder, and last year, th e two parties staged an AllStar Game promotion around Disn ey's "GForce" movie. Th e MLB-Disn ey licen sin g alliance follows a small run of cross-lice nsed NBADisn ey licensed T-shirts sold during last year 's Orlando Magic-Los Angeles Lakers Finals. ___ • Gains for league, players in labor dea1 MLS fROM PAGE 1 and Toronto. Ter m s of the agreemen t between CAA and SUM were not ava ilable, Both organ iza tions declined to commen t. Manchester Un ited la st toured the U.S. in 2004 as part of the Cham pions World Series , whi ch a lso featu r ed Celt ic, Liverpool, AC Mila n and oth ers. The club brought mostly reserve and youth players for exh ibi tio n games tha t year in Ch icago, New York a nd Philad elp hi a . Average atte nda nce over the three games was 62.684. If the club returns this sum me r. it's unlikely that it will bring its first team and star players like Eng lish forwa rd Wayne Rooney and Brazilian midfielder Anderson because many of th ose play ers will have World Cup commitme nts . Even w ithout its biggest sta r s, though, the Glazer-owned socce r club has the power to draw spe ctators. "Manchester Un ited is one of the biggest , if not the bi ggest , brands on the planet," said J ohn Guppy, founder of Gilt Edge Soccer Marketing. "It's a challen ging year wit h player availability afte r the World Cu p a nd it rem a ins to be see n what squa d th ey will bring over, but it's still exc it in g that th ey wa nt to come back to the U.S. market." The partnership CAA and SUMestab- Street & lish ed in an effor t to brin g Manch ester United to the U.S. marks the fir st t ime the two organ iza tions have worked together s ince com peting again st each other la st sum mer. In 2009, CAA or ganized a six-game ex h ibit io n tour featurin g AC Mil an, Inter Milan , Chelsea FC a n d Clu b Ameri ca. The CAA tour, which was k n ow n as th e World Footba ll Challen ge, posed a threat to SUM's position a s the exc lus ive eve nt m ar ket er a nd organizer for U.S. socce r tours. It also threaten ed to detract fr om SUM's 2009 soccer events, the Gold Cu p and an FC Barcelona tour. Ultimatel y,both groups were a ble to pull off the ir respec tive events without dam a gin g eac h other, lead ing soccer sta ke ho lde rs to name last year "T he Summer of Soccer." CMs World Football Challenge ave raged 56,136spe ctators ove r si x ga mes an d 152,000 Hispan ic hou seholds on ESPN Deportes for six m atches. Meanwhile, the Gold Cu p fin al drew close to 80,000 fans at Meadowl ands St adium, fo llowing a qu arterfinal doubl eh ead er at Cowboys Stadium that attrac te d 85,000. FC Barcelona drew a crowd of 61,572fans for a game aga inst Ch ivas de Guadalajara at San Franci sco 's Candlest ick Park. Smith'e SportsBusiness.JOURNAL I www.s ports bus ine s sj ournal.com Under the new CBA, teams have to pay players for exhibition games, The first game is free; the second is $5OOper player;the leird is $750-'per player;and the fourth is $1,000 per player. Games against elite Iaternatlonal teams Hke Fe Barcelona or CI\:lD America cost even more. • AGHT ANOTHER IrAY The biggest isse~in negotiations,was tlie pla free agen~ Ultimafely, for limited freedom of nt and opted to fight fer full tree, agency another day. Taylor TweIlm.an, the player representative for the New England'Revolution, said that players knew in order to achieve free agency, they would have to strike. Though the players overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike, he said they didn't really want to strike because of the league's economic condition andthe general slate of the economy. "I wouldn't say one side caved in," TweIlm.an said. "It was really an open discussion about what isbest for soccer and how can we .avoid a strike." Five years from now, Tweilman said, MLS players may seek free agency again " if the league is cranking and the stadiums are filled." • FUTURE OF tHEUNION The future of the union's leadership is not entirely clear given the fact that players failed to achieve the right they coveted most: free agency How.ever. a few player-side sources who did speak out last weekvoiced supportforMLSPU Executive Director Bob Foose. general counsel Jon Newman, and Eddie Pope, director of player relations, praising the work the trio did during the last two years to unify players. Players felt prepared for every scenario that might arise during negotiations, Columbus Crew player representative WillIam Hesmer said. For example, he said that the union had sent players an example of a letter it believed the league would send prior to a strike about cutting health insurance. As expected, the league sent a nearly identical copy of the union's "example" letter two weeks ago. "They had the foresight to see exactly how the negotiations would play out and it did play out that way," Hesmer said. "Bob Foose, Jon Newman. Eddie Pope - they all did a tremendous.job." MARCH 29 -APRIL 4 , 20 10 I II

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