Two of my greatest passions in life are sports and marketing. Combine the two and it creates a powerful tonic that I find… well, irresistible. Given my profession, I have an obvious bias toward the online sector of the advertising universe. In the world of sports, my Tivo roster tends to favor football and baseball. Heck I even have my World Series Tickets from 1980 framed proudly in the corner of my desktop. For the record, I’m a die hard Philadelphia sports fan and University of Oregon Alum… Go Ducks!

I remember back in the day when the sports stadiums took on their own names instead of those of their sponsors. Maybe I’m nostalgic, but I miss those days. I can remember going to Eagles and Phillies games at the Vet and 76ers and Flyers games at the Spectrum. Nowadays they’re Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Ball Park and Wachovia Complex respectively. That’s not the only thing that’s changing in the world of sports marketing.

According to eMarketer, sports is the largest recipient of sponsorship spending in North America. The numbers are staggering.

Sports is the largest category of sponsorship spending in North America. In 2006, $8.94 billion was spent on sports sponsorships in the region, representing two-thirds of the $13.39 billion total, according to IEG.

eMarketer projects that sports sponsorship spending in North America will increase to $13.24 billion by 2011, and that it will continue to represent between 66% and 69% of overall sponsorship spending in the region.

eMarketer senior analyst Paul Verna sees sponsorship as part of a sports-driven marketing mix that is moving online.

“The spending bonanza that accompanies mega-events like the Super Bowl and the World Series has played out mainly on broadcast and cable TV,” Mr. Verna said.

“However, by 2011, the online share of the US sports advertising pie will double to 10%, from 4.9% in 2006. In dollar terms, this will translate to $1.1 billion in advertising revenues at sports-related Web sites in 2011, up from $407 million in 2006.”

This is great news for all of us sports crazed fans in the online marketing industry.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 10th, 2007 at 1:30 amand is filed under Internet Marketing(t) . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.