General Motors says it won’t renewing its sponsorship with the New York Yankees, the Pittsburgh Pirates and, potentially, the Daytona 500, as it attempts to cut back on advertising and marketing spending. Meanwhile, German automaker Mercedes-Benz says it plans to drop its sponsorship deal with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Toyota and Audi will take over as sponsors of the Yankees, club chief operating officer Lonn Trost said late yesterday. GM had sponsored the team – one of the most valuable in all of professional sports – from 2006-08. The Toyota and Audi deals will ballpark signage, just as the previous GM deal did.
“We understand their financial condition,” Trost told the Associated Press. “I think it was a mutual understanding.”
GM intends to renew its contract with the New York Mets, however.
“We still want a presence in New York and we can’t do both,” GM Northeast region spokeswoman Andrea Canabal told the Detroit News.
The automaker also plans to continue to its sponsorships with the Chicago Cubs and White Sox, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers and Philadelphia Phillies. It is negotiating with an unidentified number of other baseball clubs, however.
Last week, GM announced that it wasn’t renewing its contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The automaker hasn’t made a decision on whether it will continue to sponsor the Daytona 500 NASCAR event – or if it will continue to have a strong presence in the racing series altogether. Ford and Chrysler have dramatically dropped their roles in NASCAR.
Mercedes-Benz , on the other hand, isn’t immune to the global sales downturn, either. The automaker announced recently that it has decided to pull out of its Milwaukee Brewers sponsorship.
“We’re sad to see Mercedes go, but it was nothing Brewers-related,” Brewers executive vice president Rick Schlesinger told The Associated Press last week. “We want to get them back when times improve.”
Mercedes-Benz cited the strength of the nearby Chicago market when it first sponsored the Brewers three years ago.
