Wyatt Pierson, Author at Innovative Partnerships Group

This article was originally published to global newswire.com

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Sept. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HotelPlanner, a leading travel technology platform and hotel booking engine, today announced a service provider partnership with The St. James, the premier sports, wellness, and entertainment brand in the county. The partnership includes HotelPlanner offering discounted hotel solutions to The St. James members for their athletic events and lifestyle experiences.

The St. James Flagship in Springfield, VA, features 450,000 square feet of endless sports, wellness, and entertainment options for the entire family. Home to world-class venues including FIFA regulation size turf field, pair of NHL ice rinks, four basketball and nine volleyball courts, Olympic swimming pool, golf simulators, squash courts, batting cages, gymnastics center, high performance center and more, The St. James hosts to an impressive lineup of tournaments, from elite high school basketball showcases such as She’s Got Game and MLK Classic to Premier Lacrosse League’s Championship Series as well as corporate team building and social events.

“The St. James is known as the place where active families and professionals can train like elite athletes. We found an elite partner with HotelPlanner, which offers the most expansive hotel selection and superior service for athletic events. Our members can now enjoy the additional membership perk of discounted hotels and group travel support from HotelPlanner,” says Elyse Graziano, Senior Director of Sports, The St. James.

“We’re excited to partner with The St. James, a leading company in the athletic performance, health & wellness space for the entire family, to offer discounted hotels for member events, athletic tournaments, and lifestyle experiences. This partnership expands our footprint in the rapidly growing health & wellness space,” says Tim Hentschel, Co-founder & CEO, HotelPlanner.

About Innovative Partnerships Group

Innovative Partnerships Group (IPG 360) is a leading Los Angeles-based naming rights, business development and international marketing firm focused on generating long-term strategic business partnerships for prestigious global brands. It is specialised in the sports, music and entertainment industries and has extensive experience with clients from professional leagues, governing bodies and franchises and teams from the main sports competitions including LaLiga, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS, MLB and the Olympics.

Innovative Partnerships Group also works with a patented system, Partnership Intelligence ™, which helps companies and brands accurately assess, align and measure their potential sponsorship deals. The company has been recognised on several occasions in recent years by Sports Business Journal as one of the leading sports marketing agencies in this industry

This article was originally published to mlb.com

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays are closer than ever to securing a long-term home in the Tampa Bay area.

The Rays reached an agreement with the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County to build a new, $1.3 billion ballpark as part of the redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site, an 86-acre area also known as the Historic Gas Plant District. The club, city and county made the announcement at Tropicana Field’s “162 Landing” on Tuesday morning.

Here To Stay: Historic Gas Plant District Development

There is still a public approval process that must take place over the next few months, but this is the first time the Rays have reached this step in their long-running pursuit of a new ballpark. As a result, it appears more likely than ever that the club will remain where it's been since its inaugural season in 1998: in downtown St. Petersburg.

“I am incredibly excited. This is a big, meaningful and really positive development,” team president Brian Auld said. “I also feel a ton of pressure to make sure that we can execute on this vision that particularly the mayor of St. Petersburg has entrusted us to deliver, but also the county commissioners. So we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.”

The Rays’ proposal features an approximately 30,000-seat ballpark (with the capacity expanded to 35,000 for special events) with three seating levels, a fixed roof, an artificial turf field, operable walls and a pavilion design. The Rays would pay for more than half of the stadium’s estimated cost, with the city and county covering approximately $600 million and the Rays responsible for the rest.

According to the agreement, the entire investment in the Historic Gas Plant District development project is projected to be more than $6 billion. Approximately 15-20 acres, including the ballpark and two event parking garages, would be owned by Pinellas County, leased to St. Petersburg and subleased to the Rays on a 30-year lease agreement with options to extend it to 40 years.

The club’s current 30-year use agreement at Tropicana Field expires after the 2027 season. If the agreement is approved and everything goes according to plan, ballpark construction would be begin in late 2024 and be completed by late ‘27. The Rays would begin playing there on Opening Day 2028 and accomplish their oft-stated goal of keeping the club in the Tampa Bay area for generations to come.

“This will be a transformative project for the Rays, St. Petersburg and Pinellas County," principal owner Stuart Sternberg said. "We have proudly served as Tampa Bay’s Major League team for 25 years, and we are thrilled to be in position to do so for decades and generations to come."

In January, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch selected the Rays and their development partner Hines as his preferred choice to redevelop the Tropicana Field site, calling the decision “the best path forward for our city” and referring to the Rays/Hines as “the best partner for this generational endeavor.”

“Our transformational development of 86 acres in the heart of St. Petersburg will benefit St. Pete and Tampa Bay residents for generations to come," said Welch. "The Rays are here to stay, and it’s also critical to underscore that this impactful work is much bigger than baseball and extends far beyond the 17-acre ballpark.

"We are duty bound with our intentional efforts to honor the broken promises made to the Historic Gas Plant community, an incredibly special place that my own family called home. Our strong partnership with Pinellas County and the Hines-Rays group is coupling opportunity with hope, linking jobs to economic growth, fulfilling a commitment to minority business participation and building thousands of residential units, including a significant number of affordable and workforce housing to uplift families and strengthen neighborhoods."

The ballpark was just one part of the Rays and Hines’ mixed-use district redevelopment plan, which also called for multifamily housing units, office and medical space, retail space, hotel rooms, senior living residences, an entertainment venue, conference and meeting space, the Woodson African American Museum of Florida and parking.

The Rays have been searching for a new ballpark in the Tampa Bay area for about 16 years. They announced plans in November 2007 for a stadium on the Al Lang Stadium site, couldn’t reach an agreement with Hillsborough County in 2018 for a proposed ballpark in Ybor City, then had their split-season “Sister City” proposal with Montreal rejected by MLB’s Executive Council in January 2022.

Tampa Bay has been one of baseball’s most successful clubs on the field over the last 15 years, having clinched its ninth postseason appearance since 2008 (and its fifth straight) on Sunday, but ranked no higher than 28th in average attendance from 2011-22. The Rays are 26th in the Majors this season, averaging 17,778 fans per game, heading into their final regular-season homestand.

The club will face questions about how building a new ballpark in roughly the same location as Tropicana Field might address their well-documented attendance issues. But the Rays believe that a new ballpark, combined with the redeveloped area around it and their continued success on the field, will drive further interest and higher attendance numbers.

“We think there’s a number of things that are going to allow us to materially increase attendance going forward,” Auld said. “The first is that we’re going to have a better ballpark surrounded by a world-class destination, so we expect more people to come to enjoy that incredible ballpark and all the wonderful things we’re going to have around it.”

About Innovative Partnerships Group

This article was originally published to abc11.com

CHATHAM COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) -- Governor Roy Cooper was among those attending a groundbreaking ceremony at electric car maker Vinfast.

The Vietnamese car maker is set to bring 7,500 jobs to the area. Chatham County beat out 29 other locations across 12 other states to land the facility.

New site plans and renderings for the 1,800 acre-site were released earlier this month, including a general assembly building, a body shop, paint shop, and several other buildings on the campus.

The company received a $1.2 billion incentive package from the state for the project in which they say capacity will reach 150,000 vehicles per year.

Earlier this year, Vinfast announced it was delaying the beginning of production at the location until 2025.

About Innovative Partnerships Group

This article was originally published to sportsbusinessjournal.com

By Chris Smith

Sales and marketing agency Innovative Partnerships Group has expanded into Europe with the opening of a new office in Barcelona. The office will be located at FC Barcelona’s headquarters and will accelerate the agency’s work on the soccer club’s $1.6B renovation project for Camp Nou. Innovative Partnerships Group joined Barcelona in December 2022 on a multiyear partnership to commercialize the stadium development project. Barcelona broke ground on its renovations in June, a month after it closed financing on the project and signed a three-year sleeve sponsorship deal with electronics company Phillips.

Innovative Partnerships Group has also hired Alex Soriano as its VP/Global Partnerships. Soriano, who most recently served as commercial director for Gerard Pique’s Kosmos and before that was at Octagon, will be based out of the Barcelona office and report to Innovative Partnerships Group managing director and partner Matt Wiener. The company plans to further expand its European staff headcount throughout the rest of the year. Last week, Wiener and Innovative Partnerships Group organized and co-hosted a kickoff party at the Conrad Los Angeles luxury hotel to celebrate the start of Barcelona’s summer tour, which begins tonight with a match against Arsenal at SoFi Stadium.

About Innovative Partnerships Group

INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIPS GROUP EXPANDS TO EUROPE WITH OPENING OF BARCELONA OFFICE AND HIRING OF INDUSTRY VETERAN ALEX SORIANO, CONTINUING THE FIRM’S LONG-TERM AGREEMENT WITH FC BARCELONA TO COMMERCIALIZE PARTNERSHIPS FOR ESPAI BARÇA.

Wednesday, July 26th, 2023 Los Angeles, CA Innovative Partnerships Group, a global leader in naming rights and sponsorships with a focus on developing long-term revenue generating relationships between prestigious professional sports and entertainment properties and global brands, announced today that the firm has officially and formally expanded into Europe with the first office in Barcelona, Spain.

This global expansion is anchored by the firms partnership with FC Barcelona, as the clubs exclusive global partner for the partnerships commercialization of Espai Barca in a multi-year collaboration.

Innovative partnerships group has hired Alex Soriano as vice president of global partnerships to head up the firms entry into Spain, based out of Barcelona. Mr. Soriano has a vast experience in the industry where he has held senior executive positions at Kosmos & Octagon.

“We could not be more thrilled to have chosen Alex to help expand innovative partnerships group. His track record speaks for itself in leading premier sports projects around the world with a deep rolodex throughout Spain and Europe,” said CEO Jeff Marks.

In December 2022, FC Barcelona announced a strategic partnership with innovative partnerships group to identify and secure new partners and strategic associations for the Espai Barca project. With significant momentum already in the marketplace, led by the Global Alliance with Phillips (Ambilight tv) earlier this year and the official Espai Barca groundbreaking in may 2023, the revamp of Spotify Camp Nou is under full swing.

“We are excited to launch our first international office and accelerate our growth into Europe, continuing our long-term partnership with FC Barcelona,” stated Matt Wiener, partner & managing director of Innovative Partnerships Group.

“Our search to find the right candidate was extensive and we could not be more excited to welcome Alex to our team to help execute record breaking partnerships on behalf of FC Barcelona and Espai Barca.”

In his role as commercial director at Kosmos, Mr. Soriano oversaw the commercial sales and marketing functions for the Davis cup and the kings league. Prior to Kosmos, Mr. Soriano worked close to 15 years at octagon including sponsorship sales responsibilities for projects in tennis, cycling, football & beach soccer.

“Innovative Partnerships Group is the global leader when it comes to identifying, building and executing next generation sponsorships, said Soriano, a 20-plus-year veteran of sports and entertainment. The passion, approach and commitment to collaboration stand apart in our industry and I’m excited to join the firm during this next chapter of growth.”

Alex Barbany, executive director for Espai Barca said, “We look forward to continuing our longstanding collaboration with innovative partnerships group as we maximize new revenue associated with the future of Spotify Camp Nou and we welcome Alex and the team on the ground here in Barcelona.”

About Innovative Partnerships Group

How does a boutique sponsorship agency in LA land FC Barcelona as a major client? Listen to Jeff Marks, Founder and CEO of the Innovative Partnerships Group tell the story, and yes, they are exactly what the name implies! Based in Los Angeles, IPG has brand clients, rights holder clients and is one of the leaders in brand, sponsor, client, rights holder integration. Their best know client? FC Barcelona in Spain. Listen Up!

Listen Here: Jeff Marks is Founder and CEO of the Innovative Partnerships Group.

This article was originally published to latimes.com

It’s almost time for Dodger baseball. You’re rolling west along Sunset Boulevard, visions of Mookie Betts and Clayton Kershaw and Julio Urías happily dancing through your mind.

You’re one block from turning onto Vin Scully Avenue and into Dodger Stadium when you notice a black billboard, looming ominously above an auto repair shop called Fernando’s Tires. The billboard features this name, in bright white letters: Frank McCourt.

That guy?

Yes, that guy, the one who traded two Boston parking lots and what one of his attorneys said was “not a penny” of his own cash for ownership of the Dodgers. Yes, the one who dragged the storied team into bankruptcy amid Major League Baseball allegations he had “looted” $189 million from team revenues for personal use. And, yes, the one who laughed all the way to the bank, selling the Dodgers for a billion-dollar profit in 2012.

He did not, however, sell the parking lots that surround the stadium. In 2018, he pitched a gondola that would transport fans from Union Station to Dodger Stadium.

Five years later, the proposal is still alive, now shepherded by an environmental organization delighted at the prospect of the gondola taking cars off the streets and keeping pollutants out of the air. That Sunset Boulevard billboard and others like it are brought to you by opponents of the gondola, taking aim at the project in part by relentlessly associating it with McCourt.

The Dodgers are guaranteed to play 81 games at Dodger Stadium every year, with playoff games traditionally added in October and concert dates sprinkled throughout the year. That leaves skeptics within the community to wonder why McCourt would promote a gondola ride to a stadium parking lot that would be empty three out of every four days during the year.

Unless, of course, the lot would not be empty.

McCourt’s company, now known as McCourt Global, highlights this slogan: “Building for tomorrow.” McCourt did not sell the Dodger Stadium parking lots because he anticipated building something there, some day.

What might that be? And is the gondola intended to carry us to that day?

The pursuit of those answers took me to Dodger Stadium, to City Hall and to a meeting of MLB owners. First, however, I stopped at a weathered red brick building in the Arts District, an old furniture and fabric warehouse reimagined as a laboratory for energy innovation.

Three colorful banners greeted visitors, one with the hue of a bright blue sky. “Welcome,” that banner read, “to the Cleantech Future of Power and Water.”

The interior comes alive with vibrancy and urgency, and with work on dozens of concepts. Any one of them, building managers say, could emerge as “the next big idea to fight climate change.”

The Dodger Stadium gondola represents such an idea, according to its proponents. Climate Resolve, a nonprofit based in that building, agreed to take the reins from McCourt in leading the project.

“From my perspective,” said Climate Resolve founder and executive director Jonathan Parfrey, “to have a gondola transporting people from Union Station to Dodger Stadium, and to have that exciting, beautiful conveyance identified as a climate action?

“It changes the way people approach public transit. So it was very attractive to us.”

With baseball’s new hurry-up rules, you could miss half the game if you get stuck in Dodger Stadium’s oft-snarled traffic and get to your seat an hour after the first pitch.

The gondola alternative: get to Union Station, hop aboard a spacious cabin that could arrive every 23 seconds, soar high above the city, and arrive at Dodger Stadium in seven minutes.

The climate benefit is easy to envision: fewer fans in cars powered by gasoline; more fans in gondolas powered by electricity.

A promotional video for the proposed Dodger Stadium gondola project released by Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit.

The climate downside is easy to envision too: massive development at Dodger Stadium, with neighborhood disruption for years of construction, and with cars converging upon the stadium every day, not just on game days.

“I’m involved in this project,” Parfrey said, “and I brought my organization into this project, predicated on there not being development on that land.”

Not now, or not ever?

“Not for the foreseeable future,” he said.

Parfrey said he had been given “assurances” that the gondola was not a first step toward Dodger Stadium development. I asked who had given him those assurances, or who I could ask to get those same assurances.

“Ask Frank,” he said.

Near Lot G at Dodger Stadium, along the long slog from the outer reaches of the parking lots to a stadium entrance behind left field, a colorful model of a gondola cabin awaits you. You can step inside the 24-seat cabin, then imagine a ride that would allow you to skip traffic to the ballpark and instead, as the signage reads: “GET THERE BY AIR.”

You can even find a helpful decal, showing you where to stand to take a picture with the gondola cabin in the foreground and the stadium in the background.

The display of a model cabin takes a page from the playbook for pitching a new stadium or arena. Models and renderings can excite fans, but they also can obscure a critical question about any big project: Looks cool, but who is going to pay for this?

The cost of building the gondola was estimated at $300 million in 2020 and is expected to rise by the time a financing plan is finalized, said David Grannis of Point C Partners, a transportation and land use consultancy working with Climate Resolve.

The McCourt entity that originated the gondola concept, LA Aerial Rapid Transit, has agreed to fund the approval process, including environmental studies and permit applications, project spokesman Nathan Click said. It is up to Climate Resolve to figure out how to pay for construction, as well as for annual operating costs Grannis estimated at between $5 million and $10 million.

The gondola won’t make money, at least not under the current plan of free rides for fans with a Dodgers ticket and neighborhood residents with a Metro pass.

Parfrey said taxpayers would not be asked to subsidize the gondola.

The hundreds of millions would come from private financing, Grannis said, and largely from sponsorships and the purchase of naming rights.

In 2012, the airline Emirates agreed to pay about $60 million for a 10-year sponsorship of a London gondola — then called the Emirates Air Line — that carried riders above the River Thames and cost $96 million. The current one-way adult fare on the London gondola is $7.50.

“In this case,” Grannis said, “you have a venue that happens to be the best attended in Major League Baseball, and therefore the iconic nature of this cabin flying to Dodger Stadium and taking you there is going to attract a lot of sponsors, a lot of people who want naming rights or sponsorship.

“That’s the big revenue.”

Jeff Marks, the founder and chief executive of Innovative Partnerships Group, brokers naming rights and sponsorship deals between companies and teams, leagues and venues. He said it “could be doable” to cover the cost of building and operating the gondola through corporate sponsorships, but he said even the most generous sponsor might not be willing to strike a nine-figure deal without exposure beyond simply slapping the company’s name on the side of the gondola.

Marks, speaking generally because he is not involved in the project, said a title sponsor might also want a benefit such as the company name on the field. A hypothetical example: Verizon Field at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers have hired firms to solicit corporate offers for naming rights to the field and patches on the team jerseys.

Or, Marks said, a primary sponsor might prefer naming rights to whatever development might rise atop the parking lots: Take the Verizon Gondola to the Verizon Village at Dodger Stadium!

Rick Caruso, the developer behind the Grove and Americana shopping and entertainment centers, pursued the Dodgers when McCourt put them up for sale. Caruso commissioned studies on how to improve the notorious congestion for cars getting into and out of the Dodger Stadium parking lots.

Without control of the lots, however, Caruso believed he might not have been able to implement any changes. McCourt insisted he would not sell the lots, and Caruso withdrew from the bidding.

Guggenheim Baseball Management, the winning bidder, took a different approach. Guggenheim, led by Mark Walter and Stan Kasten, bought the Dodgers and their stadium from McCourt. In a separate transaction, a Guggenheim entity formed a joint venture with a McCourt entity to control the parking lots.

In land use documents filed by the joint venture in 2012 and intended to “facilitate the orderly development” of the Dodger Stadium parking lots, the potential property uses cited include homes, offices, restaurants, shops, entertainment venues, medical and academic buildings, a separate sports facility and a hotel and exhibit hall.

“It is an ill-conceived concept that the highest and best use of Chavez Ravine is 260 acres for parking,” an attorney for McCourt, Tony Natsis, said at the time. “I consider that to be an ill-conceived notion for the owner of the parking lots and the owner of the stadium.”

Walter, the Dodgers’ chairman and controlling owner, said McCourt cannot develop anything on the property without Guggenheim’s consent. What might Walter be thinking in terms of development now?

“I haven’t been thinking about it at all,” Walter said.

Kasten, the Dodgers’ president and chief executive, said the Dodgers support the gondola project but are “really not involved” in it. Walter had a simple explanation for why the Dodgers would back a project that would chew up a chunk of the parking lots in the stadium.

“Hopefully, it will make it easier for people to get there,” he said.

Of the 18,889 parking spaces at the stadium, the gondola station at Dodger Stadium would result in the loss of 194 spaces, according to the environmental impact report for the project.

To the Dodgers, that would not be a big deal. But this might be: The report projects 10,000 people would ride the gondola to each game by 2042, which could translate to a loss of about 20% of parking revenue.

Kasten called those figures “hypotheticals that I don’t have an answer for,” and project opponents dismissed the ridership projections as unrealistically high, citing a UCLA study.

But a person familiar with the Dodgers’ business model, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize his professional relationships, said the team likely would not agree to give up millions in annual parking fees without some way to recoup that money.

“It does not make sense for the Dodgers to do it if they’re going to lose parking revenue,” the person said. “It does make sense if the gondola is serving a larger development.”

The California Endowment, a nonprofit with offices that would sit beneath the shadow of a 195-foot gondola tower, is leading and largely funding a coalition opposing the project. In court papers, the Endowment cited the Dodger Stadium development proposal McCourt unveiled when he owned the team and alleged the gondola would be “a loss leader for the future development of parking lots at Dodger Stadium.”

What would Kasten say to Angelenos who would like to know whether the gondola comes first and development comes next?

“That’s a question you’ll have to address to someone else,” Kasten said.

To the people proposing the gondola?

“Yes,” Kasten said. “That’s where I would direct my questions.”

I had. And what had I been told? Ask Frank.

On April 9, 2021, for the first time in 32 years, the Dodgers raised a World Series championship banner. The Dodgers bestowed the honor of hoisting the treasured flag upon five people, including three of their own: Dodgers co-owners Magic Johnson and Billie Jean King, each decorated champions in their own right, and Hall of Fame broadcaster Jaime Jarrín.

The other two: Eric Garcetti, then the mayor of Los Angeles, and Gil Cedillo, then the city councilman representing the district that includes Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers forged a strong working relationship with Cedillo. The team and nine of its senior executives combined to make $13,800 in campaign contributions to him from 2013 to ‘22, according to city records.

Cedillo lost his bid for re-election last year, defeated by community activist Eunisses Hernandez. Kasten and Hernandez each expressed a desire to work together for the benefit of the fans and the community.

Garcetti, who has backed the gondola from the time McCourt first pitched it five years ago, said the Dodgers never have hinted to him that mass development would be in the works at Dodger Stadium.

“I think there is a vision of trying to make it less of a once- or twice-a-year kind of a place for a family, when you go to a game,” Garcetti said before he left office last December, “and more of an asset: the best view in L.A., a place for more special events, a place where baseball history can be celebrated.

“I think their core business is baseball, and they want to protect that.”

The environmental impact report does not contemplate development at Dodger Stadium. The report states “no housing units are proposed” as part of the project and “additional approvals requiring further environmental review would be necessary” for any development at the stadium or elsewhere along the gondola route.

For Hernandez, that language is not enough. The councilwoman said she has “a lot of concerns” about the gondola.

“I am not convinced that this is an effective solution to reducing vehicle congestion,” she said, “and I share the neighborhood’s concerns about displacement and disruption.”

Hernandez said she is not necessarily opposed to development at Dodger Stadium, provided affordable housing is a priority. She is opposed to considering the gondola on its own, without any consideration of whether development might follow and what it might involve.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to undertake such large-scale projects without a full and clear understanding of long-term plans,” Hernandez said. “This shouldn’t be piecemealed out, and I want to see additional development plans made clear.

“That is the honest approach, and that’s what will allow the community, the city, and all involved entities to make a clear-eyed decision.”

Steve Soboroff, who was the mayoral point man on the construction of Staples Center and later president of the Playa Vista development near LAX, worked briefly with McCourt in the final year of his Dodgers ownership.

Soboroff is not involved in the gondola project. He said the most effective way to build community support for the project would be to offer transparency about the long-term plan, even if the gondola would come first and any development would come later.

“That would be the path that I would choose,” Soboroff said.

It was time for me to do what Parfrey had suggested: Ask Frank.

The Dodgers have prospered without McCourt, and McCourt has prospered without the Dodgers.

He bought the storied French soccer club Olympique de Marseille. He donated $200 million to what is now called the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. He launched Project Liberty, an initiative to reform the Internet in the interest of serving “people, not platforms.”

As McCourt told Leaders Magazine: “Our technology today is great if you want to support autocracy, but it is not so great if you want to support individual rights and the freedoms and liberties assorted with democracy.”

McCourt still owns the Los Angeles Marathon, which starts at Dodger Stadium. During the past two months, as Urbanize LA reported, McCourt entities revealed plans to construct 502 apartments in three buildings on two sites along Stadium Way and another one block south, overlooking the 110 Freeway. The apartment buildings are planned regardless of whether the gondola is approved, said Brin Frazier, a spokeswoman for McCourt.

The applicant for the apartment projects is listed in city records as Jordan Lang, president of two McCourt entities: McCourt Partners Real Estate and Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies.

Lang’s company biography makes no mention of any experience in other transportation projects but touts his leadership in completing “millions of square feet of office, hotel, residential and mixed-use projects.”

The prospect of developing such a large site on the outskirts of downtown is so rare that the city’s movers and shakers have floated concepts for decades. Caruso and I talked about some of them 18 years ago, long before McCourt put the team up for sale or Caruso ran unsuccessfully for mayor.

Peter O’Malley, the revered former Dodgers owner, proposed building an NFL stadium in the Dodger Stadium parking lot in 1995. McCourt revived the idea in 2005.

The other four MLB teams in California all have pursued mixed-use developments surrounding their ballparks. The Angels’ most recent proposal — since killed by the city of Anaheim amid a corruption scandal — would have included more than 5,000 homes on a site roughly half the size of the Dodger Stadium property.

“We need more housing,” Garcetti said. “We need it to be centrally located. We need it to be affordable. I think, if you meet those criteria, you can start a conversation with the city.”

Or, perhaps, development at Dodger Stadium could mean a selection of food halls, restaurants and bars, enticing enough to lure fans to arrive long before the game and stick around after it ends. That in itself could ease the neighborhood traffic bottlenecks on game days, gondola or no gondola.

Parfrey, who said his nonprofit agreed to take the lead on the gondola project based on what he said was a promise of no development on the land, said his organization would not support a ballpark neighborhood arising on the property but would support a plan to put a restaurant here and there within the parking lot.

“We would go early and go to the restaurants,” Parfrey said.

Parfrey, remember, was the guy who told me to “ask Frank” about the “assurances” that the arrival of the gondola would not trigger development. I mentioned that to Frazier, McCourt’s spokeswoman, and asked if I could speak to him about that.

“Frank,” she said, “is not available.”

About Innovative Partnerships Group

This article was originally published to bizjournals.com

Innovative Partnerships Groups' Sean Moran speaks on the exciting opportunity

A planned NBA practice center funded by city government and an adjacent arena district could generate $85.7 million from sponsorships over a 17-year period, according to projections shared yesterday by a national consulting firm.

Los Angeles-based Innovative Partnerships Group, a consultant for the past year on the proposed arena district, shared its findings as part of Charlotte City Council’s monthly economic development committee meeting. Sean Moran, the firm’s director of valuation and analytics, told the committee that, while Innovative Partnerships Group has extensive sports experience, the company has also worked on strategy and sponsorship sales for non-sports innovation and entertainment districts in Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee; Tampa, Florida; and the San Francisco Bay Area in California.

The Charlotte project is a bit of both. It ties in the NBA Charlotte Hornets, who play at the city-owned Spectrum Center and who secured a commitment from city government last year to fund a new, $60 million practice center. The practice center is likely to be built as part of a new Charlotte Transportation Center across the street from the arena, a project that will include a mix of uses. Those uses will likely include offices, a hotel, parking and ground-floor retail — all atop a subterranean bus hub.

The existing transportation center opened in 1995. It’s bounded by the light-rail tracks and East Trade, South Brevard and East Fourth streets in uptown. The city wants to replace the CTC on the same site, with a likely opening in 2028 or 2029.

Terms call for the private developers to buy the 2.6-acre site, though the city would own the new transportation center. City government and the Charlotte Area Transit System would fund the $89 million underground bus station. Everything else would be privately funded except the NBA training center.

In 2019, the city selected real estate firms Dart Interests of Dallas and locally based White Point Partners to redevelop the site after a public bidding process. The city required a bus station be included as part of any redevelopment.

City Council last year approved a combined $275 million worth of taxpayer-funded projects for the Hornets in exchange for the NBA franchise extending its lease 15 years through 2045. Th funds include $215 million worth of maintenance and upgrades at Spectrum Center, which opened in 2005. Those projects will be completed over several off-seasons beginning this summer.

An opening date for the practice center has yet to be determined. Funding for the $60 million project is to be generated through sponsorship rights granted to the city by the Hornets and through related sponsorship sales within the arena district.

Moran outlined the sponsorship strategy yesterday. Innovative Partnerships Group anticipates selling one sponsorship for district naming rights at a starting price of $2 million annually, one for the NBA practice center for $1.25 million per year, and three to five district founding partners spending an average of $750,000 apiece to align with features such as a food hall, the Rail Trail and other assets. Most of the agreements would have annual increases of 2% to 3%.

Based on those projections, IPG estimates the sponsorships would generate $137.3 million between 2028 and 2045, or, in present-day inflation-adjusted dollars, $85.7 million. The practice center is expected to cost $60 million.

Tracy Dodson, assistant city manager in charge of economic development, told CBJ that the difference in revenue and construction cost allows for possible overruns and revenue-sharing arrangements.

The Hornets’ practice center would include four courts on two levels as well as locker rooms, therapy and nutrition centers, and coaches’ offices. The center would encompass 59,385 square feet and 9,850 square feet of outdoor patios and terraces.

NBA training centers for the Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers, Chicago Bulls and Milwaukee Bucks cover 58,000 square feet to 65,000 square feet, with exterior space of 640 square feet to 14,450 square feet.

“One of the things that has worked really well (in other places) … is buying in, what does everybody want this district to represent?” Moran said. “We really want it to be authentic to the city, to the area and to those corporate partners.”

Moran said that companies representing specific sectors or advertising campaign subjects would be top candidates. These include mobility companies, who would have natural links to transit, as well as sponsors actively involved in campaigns tied to sustainability, community pride (such as links to nearby Brooklyn Village), sports and entertainment, and financial services and financial technology firms.

Addressing a council member’s concerns about screening sponsors to avoid potential missteps and protect the city’s image, Dodson said that “putting up these guardrails” will help, as will consensus-building before signing sponsors among the key partners: the Charlotte Area Transit System, known as CATS; city government; the NBA Hornets; and the Dart-White Point development team. Dodson said that council would have final approval before any sponsorship agreements are signed.

A successful sponsorship campaign requires “being strategic about how all of this weaves together,” she added.

Dodson and Moran touted a year-round attraction that would turn South Brevard Street into a community asset used for farmers markets and street fairs. It would be closed to cars on event and game days to create an arena-focused district. Dodson noted that similar ideas have been discussed on and off since the 1990s and included in uptown strategy plans.

Momentum is likely to grow as a new hotel is underway nearby, the former EpiCentre is slated to be revamped, and the Midnight Diner will reopen in the area after relocating from South End.

“How can we integrate everything together to make it seem very unified?” Moran asked. “I think the one thing you want to avoid is having a hodgepodge of different areas. That really defeats calling it a district, and it defeats the ability to generate some of that revenue.”

He unironically went on to tell the council committee, “We want to avoid a NASCAR feel” of colliding logos, even as he acknowledged that the city owns the NASCAR Hall of Fame located at the other end of the street on Brevard. “Part of it is bringing people in outside of game days or event days,” Moran said, alluding to how to make the district work best.

Last week, the Metropolitan Transit Commission, the regional governing body over CATS and a half-cent countywide transit tax, approved the transit agency’s preferred below-ground design for the new transportation center. On Jan. 3, City Council endorsed the same proposal. The discussions yesterday by two council committees provided another incremental step, with the full 11-member council expected to back a nonbinding agreement between local government and private developers to continue planning and design work.

“I’m really excited about the steps we’re taking,” councilman Malcolm Graham said yesterday, echoing comments by Driggs and Marjorie Molina, among others. “Obviously, the devil’s in the details.”

Earlier yesterday, during a discussion by the transportation committee, council members James Mitchell and Renee Johnson encouraged city and CATS administrators to consider whether tenants in the existing transportation center will be offered spots in the redeveloped transit hub.

The $89 million transportation center budget includes $12 million to build a temporary bus station on a 1.2-acre site owned by Dart-White Point on Brevard Street, across Fourth Street. Construction would likely begin in 2024 and the temporary station would open in 2025, operating until the new center is built. Dodson and CATS executive Jason Lawrence told council members they hope to determine ways to reuse materials from the temporary station.

About Innovative Partnerships Group

This article was originally published to FCbarcelona.com

Members-only travel club becomes the club’s regional partner in North America in an agreement that unites the worlds of sport and travel

FC Barcelona has signed a partnership agreement with Orlando-based subscription travel club Travel + Leisure GO as the organization’s official Travel Club Partner in the U.S.

Featuring bookable itineraries inspired by the pages of the iconic magazine, Travel + Leisure GO is the must-have travel membership for adventure-seekers, savvy travelers and now, FC Barcelona fans. Membership, available in monthly and annual options, unlocks discounts at hotels and resorts around the world, with preferred pricing on rental cars, cruises, activities and more. Members also have access to a personal concierge service to assist with booking and reservations, as well as a complimentary magazine subscription.

As part of the partnership, Travel + Leisure GO plans to feature a curated itinerary to Barcelona, Spain.

“Travel + Leisure GO is thrilled to be the official Travel Club Partner of FC Barcelona in the U.S., helping Barça fans dream, plan and book their 2023 travels – whether that’s a local staycation in the states or a long-haul trip to Barcelona to catch a live match,” said Fiona Downing, Chief Membership Officer, Travel + Leisure GO. “Just as football crosses borders, unites people and creates a narrative that both thrills and excites, so too does travel, which transcends culture and language, turning the world into an enormous playing field to be enjoyed in the spirit of togetherness.”

This agreement furthers FC Barcelona’s trade links with the United States and is yet another step closer to its North American fan base, in this case by means of tourism and leisure.

“With this agreement with Travel + Leisure GO, we are able to continue to get closer to our North American supporters and to strengthen our brand in this part of the world through a leading travel club in the American tourism sector,” said Juli Guiu, FC Barcelona Marketing Area Vice President. “We are thus exploring a new way to reach new audiences and extend our fan base in a region where we already have considerable presence. As our fans begin to take advantage of this partnership and their new travel club, it will help us to position ourselves as ‘Més que un Club’ on a global level.”

About Innovative Partnerships Group

This article was originally published to SportsBusinessJourna l .com

When the Flyers first pitched Insomnia Cookies on a team sponsorship around a year ago, CMO Tom Carusona initially said no -- reflexively. As marketer for a brand spawned around college campuses, he’s turned down scores of pitches for college sponsorships as the Insomnia brand -- born in a dorm room in Penn’s West Philadelphia campus -- rose like dough in the oven over the past 20 years to more than 230 stores.

Still, the proposal became unique after months of discussions between the team, Insomnia and Innovative Partnerships Group, which brokered the deal for the Flyers. Certainly, there were hometown ties, but just as important was doing business with another Philly-based company in Aramark. Wells Fargo Center averages around 200 events a year, and cookies will be sold at all events, not just hockey games.

So, Insomnia’s first team sponsorship not only got it the unprecedented "official cookie of the Flyers” designation and marketing assets at Wells Fargo Center, it pushed the brand into a new distribution channel: two branded Insomnia Cookie stands at the arena opening within a few weeks. Insomnia Cookies will also be on suite menus at the arena.

“It’s a sponsorship deal, but one that also came with (retail) locations within the building, (and) that degree of business back made it attractive," said Carusona, perhaps not coincidentally a former marketer at both Aramark and Comcast, which owns the Flyers. "This will allow us to learn and test a new model, reach a somewhat older consumer and have two million people a year in that building with our cookies."

Insomnia looks to learn from team partners like Aramark

Every young brand could benefit from some incremental branding of the sort the Flyers will provide with arena assets. How far the combination of Insomnia’s millennial appeal and Aramark’s service base of 150 food and beverage accounts in North America seems far more significant. We’ll find out if fresh-baked cookies can scale with the help of sports. The category has shown growth lately. Restaurant Business estimates the 20-year-old Insomnia’s 2021 sales at $158 million (that’s a lot of chocolate chips).

“Awareness and brand sentiment measures are key for us as we grow, but learning with Aramark is important," said Carusona. “We want to find out as much as we can about selling our products in an arena environment with a small footprint."

The Flyers are also looking to integrate the cookie brand into their Student Rush ticket marketing campaign, said Dan Wise, SVP/corporate partnerships for the Flyers and Wells Fargo Center. Insomnia is hoping to use Flyers intellectual property for promotions at their 20 stores in Philly market. It's uncertain whether team logos will make it onto cookies.

Innovative Partnerships Group’s Jeff Marks: "This is a sponsorship in a non-traditional category, but I would tell you that we applied the same ROI and revenue modeling here we would apply to a bank, tech or infrastructure brand doing a naming-rights deal.”

Carusona said the cookies will retail for around $4 in at the arena. He’s confident that the warm cookies-cold rink dichotomy will spur sales. Carusona has just one remaining concern. "I hope this isn’t going to make my phone ring a lot with more (sponsorship) pitches," he laughed. “We just don't have budgets like Nike or Chevy."