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![TMCNet: Corporate clout: Company CEO says renewed Sun Bowl game backing to be discussed [El Paso Times, Texas]](http://images.tmcnet.com/siteart/invisible.gif)
Corporate clout: Company CEO says renewed Sun Bowl game backing to be discussed [El Paso Times, Texas]
(El Paso Times (TX) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Dec. 27--EL PASO -- Gerald Rubin is not ready to tip his hand on whether his company will extend its sponsorship of the Brut Sun Bowl game.
Helen of Troy has been the game's title sponsor for six years at an annual cost of about $1 million, which includes paying for the bowl's halftime show, said Rubin, the company's founder and CEO. The company's sponsorship contract with the Sun Bowl ends after Thursday's game.
"I don't know if we'll continue the sponsorship," Rubin said last week. "I'm sure there will be discussions after the game."
The bowl has been named for Helen of Troy's Brut cologne the past four years. It was named for its Vitalis hair tonic for the first two years of the El Paso company's bowl sponsorship.
Bernie Olivas, Sun
Bowl executive director, said, "It will be tough to find someone else" because of the recession. "If Gerry says no, we'll have to go looking. Sometimes, you get lucky. Some bowls have found a sponsor in two months, some in two years."
The Sun Bowl, now in its 76th year, struggled to survive when it had no title sponsor in 1994 and 1995 after it lost its first title sponsor, insurance and financial services company John Hancock.
A rental-car tax was approved by voters in November 1997 to help support the game. The tax has generated more than $2 million a year since 2003. The money helps pay the game's teams, which each now get $1.9 million.
Less use of the tax by the Sun Bowl in the tax's initial years has resulted in a tax reserve of
almost $3.7 million, city data show.
Helen of Troy has already cut back on its sponsorship in another sport. Last year, it ended a two-year Brut sponsorship of a National Hot Rod Association car, which cost about $5 million a year, because "it was not economical for us," Rubin said.
The car sponsorship was done for product promotion, he said, while the Sun Bowl sponsorship is done for civic pride.
The Sun Bowl's short, year-end national TV exposure for the Brut brand "can't move the needle enough" to substantiate the sponsorship's cost, Rubin said.
Brut is the only men's cologne sold by Helen of Troy, which makes and markets a long list of name-brand personal-care products and houseware gadgets.
Helen of Troy sponsored the Sun Bowl to be a good corporate citizen, which, Rubin said, is important for El Paso and its economy. The game pumps more than $10 million into the economy, according to a University of Texas at El Paso study.
Missy Setters, executive director of the 34-year-old Indepen dence Bowl, said finding and keeping bowl sponsors has not been easy in recent years for the Shreveport, La., bowl game.
Its last sponsor, PetroSun, a Phoenix energy company that trades on the penny stock market, defaulted on its title sponsorship contract in 2007 after a year. That left the bowl without a sponsor in 2007 and 2008, and operating with its financial reserves. The bowl hired a company to search for a sponsor, but bowl officials found one in their backyard.
Bowl officials in February began talking to Richard Wright, a Shreveport native who served on the Independence Bowl's board of directors for many years. He became president and CEO in May 2007 of AdvoCare, a Dallas company that markets nutritional and skin-care products.
"He (Wright) was still active with the bowl foundation and was aware of our title search," Setters said. In May, the game became the AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl.
"Interest is there" for bowl sponsorships, Setters said. "It just takes a while to close the deal, and it has to be the right fit."
Local ties played a part in two other recent title sponsor deals.
The 12-year-old Motor City Bowl in Detroit lost General Motors and Ford as title sponsors this year because of the automakers' financial troubles. The bowl in September got the Detroit-based Little Caesars Pizza chain as title sponsor. It's now the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.
The 2-year-old St. Petersburg Bowl in Florida this month signed a two-year title sponsorship with Beef 'O' Brady's, a national restaurant chain based in Tampa, Fla. It's now the St. Petersburg Bowl presented by Beef 'O' Brady's.
The Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl became the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl in April after Pioneer, the consumer electronics maker, exited as the 17-year-old bowl's title sponsor. Maaco, a national chain of auto-body shops, was bought in late 2008 by Driven Brands, which sponsors the Meineke Car Care Center Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., its corporate headquarters. Meineke is a Driven Brand company.
Jamey Rootes, president of Lone Star Sports and Entertainment, a Houston company that operates the 4-year-old Texas Bowl in Houston, said the economic model for bowl games is fairly simple: tickets, TV and title sponsor.
"You need those three things right to make the economic model work," Rootes said.
The Texas Bowl is looking for its first title sponsor, and Rootes said he expected it would have one before next year's game even with the recession. It is likely to be a Houston-area or regional company, he said.
The Texas Bowl is one of only three bowls, among 34 bowl games this year, without a title sponsor. The others are the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque and the International Bowl in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Olivas said the Sun Bowl looked nationally for a sponsor in 2003, "and we found someone in our own backyard. Anyone from El Paso knows how important this game is for this community. Someone national may not understand the importance of the game. ... If we could get someone locally (if Helen of Troy does not extend its sponsorship), we would absolutely love that."
Finding another El Paso company with the financial wherewithal to be title sponsor may not be easy.
Western Refining sponsors the Sun Bowl College All-America Golf Classic and was title sponsor for the first two years of the Texas vs. The Nation college all-star football game at Sun Bowl stadium. But the company isn't interested in being the Sun Bowl title sponsor, said Gary Hanson, a spokesman for the El Paso oil refiner.
Western's regional business doesn't fit well with the Sun Bowl's national TV stage, and the company has tightened its belt as the refining business declined in the past two years, Hanson said.
El Paso Electric, another large El Paso company, would not be able to spend money on such a sponsorship because it's a regulated utility, company CEO David Stevens said in a written statement.
Helen of Troy, Western Refining and El Paso Electric Co. are the only companies based in El Paso that have publicly traded stock shares on the open market.
Olivas said the Sun Bowl could probably survive a year or two without a title sponsor.
"We'd have to tighten our belts and let go of some (other Sun Bowl Association) events to make our budget (now at about $5 million), and concentrate on the football game," Olivas said.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com, 546-6421
For more information: www.sunbowl.org; www.hotus.com
Sponsor history
Sun Bowl title sponsors over the years:
--1986-1993: John Hancock, a Boston insurance and financial services company.
--1994-1995: No sponsor.
--1996-1998: Norwest Bank.
--1999-2003: Wells Fargo, which acquired Minnesota-based Norwest.
--2004-2009: Helen of Troy, which first used the bowl to promote its Vitalis hair tonic, and since 2006 has used it to promote Brut, the company's men's cologne.
Top bowl payouts
Per-team payouts for top 15 college football bowl games:
--Citi BCS National Championship Game, Rose Bowl, Pasadena, Calif.: $17 million.
--Rose Bowl presented by Citi, Pasadena: $17 million.
--Allstate Sugar Bowl, New Orleans: $17 million.
--Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Phoenix area, $17 million.
--Chick-fil-A Bowl, Atlanta: $5.83 million.
--Capital One Bowl, Orlando, Fla.: $4.25 million.
--Outback Bowl, Tampa, Fla.: $3.1 million.
--AT&T Cotton Bowl, Dallas: $3 million
--Valero Alamo Bowl, San Antonio: $2.25 million
--Konica Minolta Gator Bowl, Jacksonville, Fla.: $2.25 million.
--Pacific Life Holiday Bowl, San Diego: $2.2 million.
--Champs Sports Bowl, Orlando, Fla.: $2.13 million.
--Brut Sun Bowl, El Paso: $1.9 million.
--AutoZone Liberty Bowl, Memphis, Tenn.: $1.35 million.
--Insight Bowl, Phoenix area: $1.2 million.
Source: www.ncaafootball.com.
To see more of the El Paso Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.elpasotimes.com.
Copyright (c) 2009, El Paso Times, Texas
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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