American Airlines will continue its sponsorship of Major League Soccer for another two years. The deal, under which the airline is named the Official Airline of four MLS competitions – the MLS Cup, the MLS All-Star Game and SuperLiga as well as the league itself – will now be extended for at least the 2009 season, which begins in March.
American Airlines is entitled to a wide selection of marketing rights, as well as the use of the league logo and exclusive onsite promotional rights at matches. The company will also receive advertising space in MLS’ online and print publications. A large part of its contribution to the league will be logistical, providing subsidised flights for travelling teams and fans.
“We’ve had to right-size the kind of sponsorships that we do. It has gone down in the past three years, but we started this whole process quite a long time ago,” said Billy Sanez, director of advertising at AMR Corp, the parent company of American Airlines. “We like to be where our customers have an affinity to. Sports is something really big.”
1 year 2000000 2000000
