Hunt Sports Group concluded US$10m deals for Texas stadium

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The Hunt Sports Group has negotiated three more sponsorship deals worth around US$10 million for the 21,000-seat stadium being built in Frisco, Texas, for Major League Soccer (MLS) FC Dallas.

Coors Brewing Company, the Dallas Morning News and Minyard Food Stores will join North Texas Chevrolet Dealers, Baylor Health Care System, Texas Credit Union and Dr Pepper as the complex’s founding partners. Pizza Hut has already been signed up as title sponsor, costing the restaurant chain an estimated US$400,000 to US$600,000 a year for twenty years.

Coors have agreed to a ten-year relationship with the complex and the North Texas State Soccer Association - who will share FC Dallas’ 22,000 feet of office space - to include a beer garden at the stadium and title sponsorships of national team game and amateur soccer tournaments. Coors cannot enter into an arrangement with the team itself due to Budweiser’s league wide deal with the MLS. Minyard’s presence will be in the form of a party deck and they will also ferry fans to the game from several of their stores, mostly in Hispanic neighborhoods.Premier Partnerships, exclusive sales agency for the facility, have tried to find alternative sponsorship inventory due to the franchise’s relatively small media exposure. “MLS and FC Dallas do not garner significant broadcast ratings on television or radio, so we knew we had to find and create value for our sponsors differently to other professional venues and teams,” said Randy Bernstein, chief executive of Premier. They managed to accomplish this by partnering with AEG Live!, the US Soccer Federation and the Frisco Independent School District to offer a wider range of events and hence greater exposure for sponsors at the stadium.