Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel Loses Bid For Re-Naming of Baltimore Stadium

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 00:24:59 -0400

Nextel Loses Bid For Re-Naming of Baltimore Stadium
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M&T Bank Aims to Raise Its Profile with Naming Deal for Baltimore Stadium

May 6, 2003 10:42am

May 6--Baltimore's football stadium will be renamed M&T Bank Stadium under the terms of a 15- year deal completed yesterday.

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M&T, founded 147 years ago as Manufacturers and Traders Trust Co., will pay the Ravens about $5 million a year, according to C. Michael Zabel, a spokesman for the Buffalo, N.Y.-based bank. As part of the deal, the company will contribute to charities operated by the team.

Officials of the bank, which went from 26th largest in the nation to 18th through last month's acquisition of Baltimore-based Allfirst Financial Inc., were in town yesterday to complete details. An announcement is scheduled for 11 a.m. today.

It will be the stadium's third name since it opened in 1998 as "Ravens Stadium." The taxpayer-financed, $226 million stadium became PSINet Stadium in 1999 under a corporate sponsorship that dissolved last year with the bankruptcy of Internet service provider PSINet.

The state sold the Ravens the right to name the stadium for $10 million. The PSINet deal was for an average of $4.65 million annually over 20 years.

The new deal calls for the bank to put its name on the inside and outside of the stadium, as well as on the uniforms of the team's band, which will be renamed the M&T Bank Marching Ravens. M&T automated teller machines will be installed in the stadium.

Though not well known even to its customers in Maryland, M&T's public profile will greatly expand in July when its name replaces Allfirst's on branches and in regional advertising.

"It's a first-rate organization in a first-rate market," said Atwood "Woody" Collins III, president and chief operating officer of M&T's mid-Atlantic division and an executive vice president of the bank.

The transaction is among the five most lucrative NFL stadium-naming deals.

"The banking community is very competitive, and M&T is looking for an edge," said Ravens spokesman Kevin Byrne. "And we are looking for a company that would provide the finances we need to remain competitive and maintain our commitment to the community."

Anne Arundel businessman Stephen J. Bisciotti, who owns 40 percent of the team and is expected to buy the rest from the Modell family in January, was actively involved in the negotiations. He met with M&T executives at the Super Bowl in San Diego.

Aiding the Ravens in the hunt for a sponsor was E.J. Narcise, a partner in Team Services LLC, the Bethesda-based sports marketing firm hired last year to secure a naming rights deal. Ravens officials said from the start of the search that the team wanted a financially secure partner that would not add to the wreckage of dot-coms and start-ups that bought the rights to stadium names across the country only to go bust later.

The recent trend in naming rights has swung decidedly against fledgling firms such as PSINet and 3Com that dominated earlier deals. Instead, established companies making familiar products, such as Ford, Heinz and Gillette, have named stadiums.

Of the seven prior NFL stadium-naming deals completed in the past two years, three involved companies that manage money, three were with consumer product makers, and one was with a power company.

"It makes great sense for both sides," said David Cope, director of business development for Gilco Sports & Entertainment Marketing in Bethesda, which has negotiated a number of naming rights deals but was not involved in this search.

The bank will receive an immediate boost in name recognition in an important new market, and the team will get a solid partner, he said.

"More teams and owners are looking for good payers, ... and some of the best are banks and financial institutions," Cope said.

M&T will be the only bank to advertise on the stadium's exterior.

Mercantile Bankshares Corp. has about a year left on a sponsorship of the club suite section, after which M&T will become the only bank with advertising inside the stadium, Zabel said. The bank also will be able to advertise its brokerage services, and the team has agreed not to sign sponsorships with other financial services firms.

Among the corporations who showed interest in the Baltimore stadium were telecom giant Nextel Communications of Reston, Va., and auto retailer CarMax of Richmond, Va., according to sources familiar with the talks.

The Ravens originally sought an average of $6 million annually for 20 years, while the bank wanted a shorter, 10-year deal, for less money, according to a source familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The deal commits M&T to contribute to club philanthropic activities, such as the Ravens Foundation for Families, which provides grants to groups focused on physical and mental health of youth, and the "Honor Rows" program that provides game tickets to youth organizations.

Bert Ely, a banking consultant in Alexandria, Va., said banks traditionally are among the biggest donors to community charities and view them as vehicles to establish a rapport with customers in their markets.

Buying the name to the stadium, while expensive, will help M&T establish its name in a strategically important new region, Ely said.

Its $3.1 billion acquisition of Allfirst from Allied Irish Banks PLC made it one of the biggest banks in Maryland and an important player in the lucrative mid-Atlantic market. It now has more than 700 branches in Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

"They are taking a major step. This will help them make a big impact quickly and get people used to the name quickly," Ely said.

In the event the bank expands nationwide, having its name mentioned on game broadcasts and in sports sections will provide M&T a ready source of consumer recognition, Ely said. But he said it is not clear yet whether M&T will emerge from the industry-wide consolidation as a buyer or seller.

Being gobbled up by an even larger company could spell yet another change in the name of the stadium. Typically, such deals permit a name change at least once during the term of the contract.

"They have certainly emerged as one of the major players, but they are not so big that they will be one of the survivors of the consolidation process. But we don't want to rule that out altogether," Ely said.

In its most recent financial report, M&T had assets of $33.4 billion, including deposits of $21.9 billion. It reported a profit of $117 million in the three months ended March 31, up 2.6 percent from $114 million in the same period a year earlier.

After the death of Baltimore Colts Hall of Famer John Unitas in September, fans launched a petition drive to have the stadium named for him. The team declined, however, saying it needed the revenue from a corporate sponsorship. The Ravens installed a statue of Unitas outside the stadium and named a plaza for him.

Sun staff writer William Patalon III contributed to this article.

To see more of The Baltimore Sun, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sunspot.net

Copyright © 2003 The Baltimore Sun. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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