Clear Channel arranging more sponsors for its venue
By JEFF HARRINGTON
Published May 12, 2004
Clear Channel Entertainment may have taken longer to place an amphitheater in the Tampa Bay area than in any other major market in the country.
But it's quickly making up for lost time.
On Tuesday, even as the venue now being built was officially dubbed the Ford Amphitheatre on the Florida State Fairgrounds, amphitheater executive director Ed Morrell said he plans to announce up to four more corporate sponsorships in a matter of weeks. The 20,000-seat, $23-million center is slated to open in late July.
Clear Channel is no newcomer to the amphitheater business, operating 137 other outdoor venues around the country. But Morrell said he can't recall another time a naming-rights deal was struck before a center opened.
The early pact "benefits both parties because we're advertising a lot now" before the grand opening, he said.
Ford and Clear Channel would not discuss financial figures for the five-year deal and have not yet filed any public documents about it with the Fair Authority. However, Morrell confirmed that the contract was in the ballpark of a Times article Tuesday, which suggested that Ford dealers would pay between $500,000 and $1-million a year.
"Ford Division and our dealers are constantly striving to bring the best possible products and services to our customers, and now we will be able to also help give Central Florida the best in entertainment," said Jack Bennett, Ford Division Orlando regional manager.
Ford Motor Co. is considered a co-sponsor. But the brunt of sponsorship financing is coming from the Southern Ford Dealers, an advertising-based coalition that represents 101 Ford dealers in Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, the Panhandle and parts of Alabama and Georgia.
The dealership group is the third-largest Ford group in the country in terms of sales revenues.
Andrew Frick, Ford regional operation manager in Orlando, indicated the 31 dealers in the Tampa area market will be largely funding the sponsorship, but he would not specify their contributions.
In addition to signage, Ford plans to showcase its 2005 lineup at the amphitheater. That includes the redesigned Ford Mustang coming in the fall, plus the F-Series Super Duty truck, the Ford Five Hundred luxury sedan and the Freestyle hybrid of an SUV and van, all coming in July. Among possible promotions are auto-buying incentives for fans who bring their concert tickets into an area dealer.
This isn't the first Clear Channel amphitheater to bear an automaker's name. Clear Channel also operates the Ford Pavilion in Scranton, Pa.; the Chevrolet Amphitheatre in Pittsburgh, the Nissan Pavilion in northern Virginia and the Germain Amphitheater in Columbus, Ohio, the latter named after a multiline auto dealer in Ohio.
Eventually, Clear Channel aims to sign six or seven major corporate sponsors, but Morrell said there is an attempt to keep the commercialism in check. No more than 16 large corporate signs will be allowed on the 17-acre amphitheater site.
Other potential corporate sponsors attending the luncheon event included representatives of Coca-Cola and Blue Bell, the Texas ice cream company. But Morrell cautioned against assuming any other deals were a given, even for a perennial corporate backer like Coke. After all, he pointed out, someone from PepsiCo attended the amphitheater's topping-out ceremony several weeks ago.
Clear Channel executives have been eager to put an amphitheater in the bay area for 15 years. But the project on the fairgrounds property has drawn concern from city and county officials that it may take business away from other downtown Tampa sites, notably concerts that now play at the St. Pete Times Forum.
