LAST WEEK TODAY: Sponsorship News

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Check out the blog every Monday for a weekly roundup of the past week's most exciting and industry-altering news. These stories cover October 7 - 13, 2019.

Wowzers, we had quite the storm hit this past week with political disagreements making headlines in sports! In other news, we had a couple rightsholders bring on new category sponsors along with other announcements you should know about. Let's take a look.

1. When international politics meet sports, we get an explosion of drama!
   The NBA found itself in the middle of storm when general manager of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey tweeted (and later deleted) a message of support to protesters in Hong Kong. Chinese officials expressed "strong dissatisfaction" and sponsors followed suit by cutting ties with not the just Rockets, but the league too. As of late, the NBA is still standing behind Daryl Morey stating that while "it's inevitable that people around the world will have different viewpoints over difference issues, it is not the role of the NBA to adjudicate those differences... the NBA will not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees, and team owners say or will not say on these issues." It appears there's a general hope in the NBA commissioner's Adam Silver to bring resolution to this, but in the meantime, here are some ways sponsorships are getting impacted:
   • The Rockets could lose up to $25 million in sponsorship boycotts, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times.
   • An open letter was sent to Adam Silver by members of the U.S. Congress advising the league to "suspend NBA activities in China until government-controlled broadcasters and government-controlled commercial sponsors end their boycott of the NBA activities and the selective treatment of the Houston Rockets"
   • Sportswear brands Li-Ning and Anta are potentially suspending contracts and renewals.
   • Chinese state television CCTV is threatening to stop airing the Rockets' preseason games in China.
   • Tencent, the NBA's exclusive digital partner in China announced it will suspend business relations with the rockets.
   • As seen at the Lakers-Nets exhibition game in Shanghai on October 10th, corporate logos had already been removed from the floors.
2.  Third-tier English soccer club Bolton Wanderers announced discount retailer Home Bargains as their new shirt sponsor for the remainder of the League One season. Bolton initially started the 2019/20 season without a shirt sponsor because of the uncertainty surrounding their future. But Football Ventures saved the day end of August, and all seems good now.
3. Waterloo Sparkling Water just launched back in September 2017 and has already taken the bubbly water business by storm, growing almost 3,000 percent in the grocery food channel in just two years! In September, they signed on to sponsor the Desert Daze Music Festival and Joshua Tree Music Festival. And just this past week, they signed a deal with All Things Go Fall Classic.
4. Italian soccer giants AC and Inter Milan released a joint-announcement confirming A2A Energia as their official sponsor, and everyone's really happy about it! For 71 years, the two rival Serie A clubs have shared a stadium and since July, the two Milanese clubs have been planning to work collaboratively on a new joint stadium in the city. A2A chief executive Valerio Camerano, said: ‘’We are particularly proud of our being ‘Official Energy Partner’ of two clubs that, like the A2A Group, have over 100 years of history, are linked to our territory but appreciated throughout the country.’’
5. Dallas Mavericks and American Airlines Center bring venue guests some more nutritious options with the first ever partnership to sell milk. AAC partnered with one of America's favorite dairy companies, Borden, who is also Dallas-based and will be offering exclusive fan experiences and sharing their commitment to the Dallas community.
6. A historic Olympic sponsorship was also signed this past week with Empire Company and its family of grocers (Sobeys, IGA, Safeway, Farm Boy, Foodland, FreshCo, Thirifty Foods, and Rachelle Bery) becoming the first-ever official grocer of Team Canada. Stay tuned as the company's marketing campaign is unveiled in early 2020!

Did we miss any? Tweet @be_tandem to let us know - we hate being behind the times just as much as you do.

Look out next Monday for the usual round-up on sponsorship news.