The Sports Business Journal ran a feature last week on the decrease in military spending in sports. The UFC is one of the affected sports organizations and the US government sequester will mean less opportunities for military sponsorships to return to the octagon.
The US Marines ceased its sponsorship with the UFC late last year. The military spent nearly $100 million in sports sponsorship in 2008 but that has been cut in half since then. The US Marines, a strong sponsor of the UFC in the past, has seen its budget drop 32% since 2008.
Not only sponsorship opportunities have diminished but TV ad buying from the military have waned.
The SBJ published the military advertising and recruiting budgets for each branch of the military service. For the US Marines, it touted a $272.1 million advertising budget in 2008 and it has dropped to $168.6 million in 2013. The article stated that the US Marines spent 22% of its budget on sports.
Payout Perspective:
The end of the US Marines sponsorship with the UFC left a hole for the UFC sponsor portfolio to fill. At this point, it has not picked up another major sponsor. In fact, recently it has dropped equipment manufacturer Pretorian. With the Marines pulling out of the UFC, one might infer that the relationship was not providing a return on the Marines’ investment on the sponsorship.
Not picked up another major sponsor? The ROI is probably low……big corporations has tons of talented marketing people doing market research,conducting surveys etc…probably they saw that it’s not worth the money….
Probably Dana is now wishing he didn’t talk shit on coca cola years back when he had the momentum…lol…..
You can probably get the exact amount they spent including copies of agreements and contracts with a FOIA request 🙂