In case you haven’t heard, or haven’t been around the sports industry for the last 20 years, the business of selling sponsorships has become a huge growth segment for major sports teams and their stadium owners. Just look at the recent $20 million a-year deal Citibank inked with the New York Mets, or the massive $400 million, 20-year deal the New Jersey Nets got from Barclays for its new arena in Brooklyn. MLS is certainly privy to the trend, which has partly sparked the league’s insistence that its teams build soccer-specific stadiums. Everybody needs the money, and the deals will only get bigger as interest in the league grows.
It’s all good if it’s good for the game, right? In that case, hats off to the Massachusetts Youth Soccer for selling the sponsorship of its new youth soccer complex to Citizens Financial Group. The Scottish investment bank, the eighth largest holding company in the U.S., has put an untold amount into facilitating the building of what will be a massive youth soccer complex, writes MediaPost. “When these fields are completed, soccer players will stay here or travel here from all over New England for tournaments and that will have a great economic benefit on our region,” a spokesman for Citizen said. “We see this not as an extension of marketing but as an investment in the communities where we do business.” MYSA has more than 185,000 members; it’s the second-largest soccer organization in the country.