By Paul Nicholson
December 2 – The commercial rights for the Copa America Centenario 2016 which sparked the US Department of Justice’s deep dive into the murky world of football marketing on its continent, have been re-awarded.
Not surprisingly the news rights holders are from the US and are a joint bid from IMG and Soccer United Marketing (SUM) – both are either already working with CONCACAF or its increasingly dominating US and Mexican federations, but have combined for the short timescale left to sell the 2016 tournament.
While the rights generally for the Copa America tournament are ultimately owned by CONMEBOL, no marketing partner headquartered in the South American continent is included in the new representation deal for the 2016 tournament.
“ESP Properties, a division of WPP, and SJX Partners, a division of CSM Sports and Entertainment, will assist IMG and SUM with sponsorship efforts for the 2016 Copa America Centenario,” said a media release from CONCACAF.
CONCACAF have made a big deal of the new tender process for the rights with Alfredo Hawit, CONCACAF President saying: “We are proud of the RFP process and the large interest it attracted in the marketplace.”
Following the US Department of Justice indictments of confederation chiefs and marketing agency executives in May of this year, and with the same agency partners in place representing the tournament’s commercial rights it looked as though the US hosting in 2016 had become a non-starter. However after intensive negotiation and the cancellation of the agency agreement with Datisa by both CONMEBOL and CONCACAF the US agreed to host the tournament.
This agreement also came with a strict operational protocol on how rights would be sold and monies handled before the US came back on board. Hence the new RFP supervised by a US-based advisory firm.
Juan Angel Napout, CONMEBOL President, said: “This is the first time that CONMEBOL has played a part in this type of RFP process – which we will continue to implement in the future, starting in 2016. This commitment is an integral part of the governance reforms taking place at CONMEBOL in order to ensure transparency and benefit all our member associations.”
Soccer United Marketing (SUM) is the commercial arm of Major League Soccer and holds exclusive commercial rights to the United States Soccer Federation, as well as Mexican national team games played in the US. IMG will be primarily take charge of the international TV sales though the main deals in the biggest TV markets are already advanced with a number of key broadcaster having confirmed their commitment to the tournament.
This is the first time the oldest international national team tournament in the world has been played outside the South American continent and will feature 10 teams from CONMEBOL and six from CONCACAF. The tournament will be played across 12 US venues in July next year and will overlap with UEFA’s own 2016 European Championships, already creating a battle for sponsor and broadcast revenues in international markets.
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