sds70
'King Kong Ain't Got **** On Me!!!!!'
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Soooooooooooo, when will an official announcement be made? Before the home opener? Or by the end of the year?
At least (if the deal occurs as its mentioned in the article) allowing TIME WARNER CABLE to put their name on the arena would allow the Bobcats to shop their cable TV deal to another outlet (hello FSN-SOUTH? MASN?) and give the team some much more needed exposure in the Carolinas.
PS: Only website name that has been taken so far is timewarnercenter.com by AOL . . . I guess TWC could use that name already without going out and 'buying' another address (which ain't that expensive I know, but I'm just saying
. . .)
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Time Warner Cable in talks for arena's name
Rights become a factor in effort to win new TV deal
Charlotte Business Journal - by Erik Spanberg Senior staff writer
The three-year search for a naming-rights partner for Charlotte Bobcats Arena appears to be tuning into Time Warner Cable.
The cable TV company has seven years left on a broadcasting deal with the Bobcats that puts the majority of the NBA franchise's games on Time Warner-owned News 14. To get more games on a wider-distribution channel, the Bobcats must figure out a way to compensate Time Warner, which may tie in to a long-term naming-rights agreement.
"I think we'll find that naming-rights partner," says majority Bobcats owner Robert Johnson. "I think to some extent it may be linked to our TV deal, so we're trying to see if we can kill two birds with one stone."
Time Warner Cable officials acknowledge a long-running discussion with the Bobcats about a potential naming-rights deal.
"We are in some pretty good ongoing negotiations with those folks," says Brian Kelly, Time Warner Cable senior vice president of marketing and sales for the Carolinas region. "They're creative and they're coming up with some new ideas. And it does involve naming rights. We're open to the idea."
The arena name game long ago ran into overtime, with prestige and profits lost with each passing month.
NBA officials began helping the Bobcats last year in negotiations to improve the local TV package.
"You want that three-and-a-half-hour commercial (of games being telecast) going to as many people as possible," says Scott O'Neil, an NBA executive familiar with the Bobcats negotiations. "It helps with sponsorships, it helps with tickets and it helps everything else."
Before the arena opened, the Bobcats hoped to generate as much as $5 million annually by putting a corporate name on the building. The Carolina Panthers generate $7 million annually through a naming rights deal signed with Bank of America Corp. in 2004.
With the arena entering its third year of operation, the naming-rights revenue potential has declined, industry experts say. A deal in the $1 million- to $3 million-a-year range is more likely.
The Bobcats' search has lasted so long that team executives downplay the topic, preferring to emphasize the addition of any corporation as a steppingstone to eventually putting a new name on the front door.
It's a strategy that finally appears closer to resolution.
At least (if the deal occurs as its mentioned in the article) allowing TIME WARNER CABLE to put their name on the arena would allow the Bobcats to shop their cable TV deal to another outlet (hello FSN-SOUTH? MASN?) and give the team some much more needed exposure in the Carolinas.
PS: Only website name that has been taken so far is timewarnercenter.com by AOL . . . I guess TWC could use that name already without going out and 'buying' another address (which ain't that expensive I know, but I'm just saying
. . .)==============
Time Warner Cable in talks for arena's name
Rights become a factor in effort to win new TV deal
Charlotte Business Journal - by Erik Spanberg Senior staff writer
The three-year search for a naming-rights partner for Charlotte Bobcats Arena appears to be tuning into Time Warner Cable.
The cable TV company has seven years left on a broadcasting deal with the Bobcats that puts the majority of the NBA franchise's games on Time Warner-owned News 14. To get more games on a wider-distribution channel, the Bobcats must figure out a way to compensate Time Warner, which may tie in to a long-term naming-rights agreement.
"I think we'll find that naming-rights partner," says majority Bobcats owner Robert Johnson. "I think to some extent it may be linked to our TV deal, so we're trying to see if we can kill two birds with one stone."
Time Warner Cable officials acknowledge a long-running discussion with the Bobcats about a potential naming-rights deal.
"We are in some pretty good ongoing negotiations with those folks," says Brian Kelly, Time Warner Cable senior vice president of marketing and sales for the Carolinas region. "They're creative and they're coming up with some new ideas. And it does involve naming rights. We're open to the idea."
The arena name game long ago ran into overtime, with prestige and profits lost with each passing month.
NBA officials began helping the Bobcats last year in negotiations to improve the local TV package.
"You want that three-and-a-half-hour commercial (of games being telecast) going to as many people as possible," says Scott O'Neil, an NBA executive familiar with the Bobcats negotiations. "It helps with sponsorships, it helps with tickets and it helps everything else."
Before the arena opened, the Bobcats hoped to generate as much as $5 million annually by putting a corporate name on the building. The Carolina Panthers generate $7 million annually through a naming rights deal signed with Bank of America Corp. in 2004.
With the arena entering its third year of operation, the naming-rights revenue potential has declined, industry experts say. A deal in the $1 million- to $3 million-a-year range is more likely.
The Bobcats' search has lasted so long that team executives downplay the topic, preferring to emphasize the addition of any corporation as a steppingstone to eventually putting a new name on the front door.
It's a strategy that finally appears closer to resolution.
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