The Game

NFLX Restaurant Venture Sacked; HR-mania Stirs MLB Sponsor Biz

The NFL's $100 million joint venture with publicly-traded St. Joe Corp., intended to errect a chain of themed entertainment centers/restaurants, has quietly dissolved. The league is looking for a new partner to help fund its "NFLX" centers, envisioned as a chain of 35,000-plus square feet football-themed entertainment centers that would include interactive games, restaurants and retail space and would tie in the league's licensees and promotional sponsors.

With "NFLX," the NFL is hoping essentially to extend and populize its NFL Experience franchise, a hands-on fanfest that runs concomitant with the Super Bowl. The concept of the restaurant, which had been expected to first manifest in New York by late 1999, has been kicked around NFL Properties for at least a decade.

NFLP counsel Gary Gertzog, who has been spearheading the project while wearing his new business development hat, would not comment. Other sources familiar with the stalled project said that St Joe, the largest private landowner in Florida, bowed out under financial pressure, its shares having plunged from a 52-week high of 39.5 to its current range of just over 21. While there were also reports that fiscal projections were not rosy for the NFL venture, a league source insisted the project was still viable, but said there was no possibility of the first NFLX opening before the end of 2000, and because of the high cost of New York real estate, it would likely go up somewhere other than New York. The NFL "had a lot of parties interested before (St. Joe) and I believe still will," said the source.

Elsewhere in retail brand extension, ESPN will open its third ESPN Zone sports bar in Times Square next year with 10 more on the drawing board over the next three years. And the NBA opened its 35,000 square foot Fifth Avenue retail emporium in Manhattan last week, with an uncharacteristically low level of fanfare. Only those passing by knew the store was open, with the league looking to keep a low profile in the face of the current lockout.

Major League Baseball sponsorship vp Tom Worcester reports that the McGwire/Sosa home-run chase has stirred up interest among packaged-goods and financial services companies that hadn't called since before the designated hitter, but he's also facing some churn in other categories, in spite of the excitement.

MCI is walking away from the game after this season, partly because of the confusion in marketing focus inherent in the telecom giant's merger with WorldCom. MCI had done little to leverage the sponsorship in recent years, having used its MLB ties mainly for hospitality. Another key renewal for baseball is True Value, which is among the most active MLB sponsors. A re-up is up in the air, although many of its franchisees still showed strong support for the hardware co-op's MLB ties. True Value also dropped its NFL sponsorship after last season.

But Worcester is expecting the top-of-mind heroics of the Cubs' Slammin' Sammy and the Cardinals' Big Mac to translate into a more active sales season, with more mainstream marketers, heading into next spring. "Baseball has crept back into everyday life in America now, and we have got the casual fans back," he said.

The NFL is close to going public with plans for staging its first exhibition game down under. As reported here (Brandweek, March 24, 1997), the San Diego Chargers will face the Denver Broncos in Sydney, Australia, on Aug. 8 of next year as the NFL tries to spur some pre-Olympic hoopla. The league has taken the unprecedented step of outsourcing he game. Millsport, Stamford, Conn., will serve as promoter, handling everything but domestic TV sales and production. The latter hasn't been assigned but will go to either Fox or one of the ESPN/ABC combo. Air New Zealand and the government of New South Wales are the first to purchase sponsorships for the game. Millsport is also working to fashion a local TV package.

Extra innings: Campbell's will use retired Pittsburgh Steelers' legend Mean Joe Greene in an upcoming campaign for Swanson Hungry Man frozen dinners . . . Mazda has shot Scottie Pippen for TV spots to air in Japan only. They break later this month. The Marketing Arm, Dallas, handles Pippen... Are we the only ones wondering why NHL sponsor Norelco is using AHL players in its latest TV creative? Hey who needs the Champion Detroit Red Wings when you can use the drawing power of the Hartford Wolf Pack? . . Having closed one of is franchises in the off season, the California-based American Basketball League is now shuttering its New York sales office. Only two employees are affected.

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