At first glance the Indianapolis Colts schedule looks pretty good for all concerned. Forrest Lucas, founder of the oil company
that put its name on the Colts one-year-old stadium, called the team’s 2009 slate “dynamite.”
But upon further review, you have to wonder if someone in the league’s scheduling office has it out for Lucas Oil Co. and the city of Indianapolis. True, the Colts will get lots of prime time exposure. Problem is, four of those five prime time, nationally televised games are on the road.
The NFL doesn’t seem too concerned with how much exposure this small market gets. Despite having one of the league’s marquee teams, Indianapolis only plays host to one prime time game—Nov. 15. Fortunately for Indy and Lucas Oil—which paid $121.5 million to affix its name to the Colts' stadium—that game has the potential to be the best regular season game of the 2009 campaign. It features New England and quarterback Tom Brady in his comeback season against the high octane Colts.
Meanwhile, the Colts will play a Monday night game at Miami Sept. 21, Sunday night games at Arizona Sept. 27 and at Tennessee Oct. 11 and a Thursday nighter at Jacksonville.
Six of the Colts eight home games will have a 1 p.m. kick-off, usually the slot that earns the lowest TV ratings. This is hardly good news for a city banking on all the exposure it can get to build its tourism, convention and corporate business. It also has to be a bit of a let down for Lucas Oil.
Forrest Lucas isn’t complaining. He told me in a phone conversation yesterday, his California-based company is getting great—even greater than anticipated—exposure from the stadium naming rights deal.
“We’ve been involved in motorsports for years, and when I ask people what they know about our company, the first thing they mention is the stadium,” Lucas said. “This deal has gotten us exposure worldwide.”
Lucas underscored the importance of the Colts’ prime time home games for his company. Lucas said they’re especially important now, as Lucas Oil is testing new products in about 600 Auto Zone stores, with plans to make a serious nationwide push into the consumer motor oil sector later this year and next year.
“We’re ready to get into more mainstream markets in a big way,” Lucas said. “Those national TV games are huge for us. That’s the No. 1 thing we wanted with this deal.”
While Lucas said he is not disappointed by the deal “in any way,” he does hope to see a wider array of future events in the Stadium, including motorcycle racing, tractor pulls and concerts. Lucas thinks a tractor pull to coincide with the FFA convention is a natural fit.
“I think there are a lot of events they could bring in that they haven’t yet,” Lucas said. “Naturally, the more events they can bring in appealing to a wide ranging audience is good for Lucas Oil.”
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They granted us a Super Bowl. Not sure you can have it out for someone and give them a Super Bowl and essentially hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Revenue Potential for a City at the same time. While the Colts should be annual MNF home participants, let's be realistic, they gave us the Crown Jewel of American Sports.
I'd also imagine that the Colts-Pats game will rival the ratings of 95% of every other Prime-Time game this season alone.
I don't think Lucas Oil will have a problem with exposure.
Now if Comcast and NFL Network could just get their battle settled so we don't lose them....
And the word you want is marquee, not marquis.
You also do understand that much of the CIB deficit will be taken care of as the CC and JW get finished and the big conventions get rolling in. Right now they are operating at a lower level than previous years due to the construction. But once everything gets ramped up, things will look a lot better.
And the SB in 2012 has little to do with the 2009 schedule.
The RCA naming rights deal is not a fair comparison either. That deal was for an established facility that already had a name (one that many refused to let go of) and was what 15 years old (?). Surely whoever negotiated the deal (BP or the CIB) would not see that as the benchmark. If not, the criticisms are even more valid.
As for the big conventions rolling into town, well that is yet to be seen. With companies cutting costs the era of the big convention may very well be over and done with. What is (or isn't) happening in Las Vegas might be a clue.
It is easy to compare the Lucas deal to the RCA deal. Same city, same events for the most part, same NFL Team. Sure, there would be a bump in the deal from inflation and from the newer, nicer venue. But not a bump from $1 million a year to $6 million a year. Not with Indy, the 20th largest market or whatever we are having one of top 5 naming rights deals. This had more to do with Colts Marketing vs. City of Indy marketing. Private sector over public. The City employee marketing the naming rights would probably not get a pay raise or bonus for getting a really good deal. I guarantee Zupancic got a fat bonus and raise. If Indy had been smart, they would have not given away the naming rights, but gotten a percentage. 10% in hindsight would have been more per year than we were making with the RCA deal.
It does somewhat show a lack of respect, but also to the poster who mentioned that it doesn't matter about the SB in 2012 and has no effect on the 2009 schedule, bet me. You realize how many back room deals and weird negotiations take place when it comes to the NFL. For all we know, Irsay committed to throwing away 5 or 6 Prime Time NFL games in the course of the next few years, to allow other teams to earn revenue in place of us having the Super Bowl.
We have no idea what factors in to all of that, so a lack of respect, maybe. Rude - no. Not professional or the NFL not caring about smaller markets - doubtful. I think it's just how the schedule, TV, adjustment of teams to boost ratings at different time-slots and so forth.
Take it as it is - lets show the country the type of Team and city the Colts and Indy are by taking our awesome game on the road.
..to allow other teams to earn revenue in place of us having the Super Bowl.
You make good points but how does the fact that a game is held at night change the amount of revenue earned by an NFL team? Only if it draws more fans, which may be part of the answer - the Colts are a big road and TV draw.
Indyman:
Are we saying the same thing here? It is undeniable that the Colts scored big on the deal and kudos to them. Hopefully, the CIB/City learned a lesson because the CIB/City should have a piece of that pie!
If the casino deal did not happen, then the dems could blame the State and Mitch for losing the Colts and Bart would look good. They never figured the State and Mitch would craft a regional deal that would fund the Stadium without including a casino.
Hopefully they have learned to strike a better deal for future projects.
I am curious if the Stadium roof will be open this week for the FDIC. I know their reps said they would love to have it open to have the sun twinkling off of their fire engine displays.