Corporate stadium sponsorships, signalling theory, agency conflicts and shareholder wealth

Contrary to the plethora of critical articles recently appearing in both the popular and business press, this carefully controlled investigation of 49 stadium-and arena-naming-rights agreement announcements provides striking evidence that such sponsorships can significantly enhance the stock prices of sponsoring companies.

Corporate Stadium Sponsorships, Signalling Theory, Agency Conflicts and Shareholder Wealth

John M. ClarkUniversity of Missouri – Kansas CityT. Bettina CornwellUniversity of QueenslandandStephen W. PruittUniversity of Missouri – Kansas City

A recent Business Week article, titled 'The Stadium Effect,' suggested that corporate sponsorships of athletic stadiums 'may not be a championship move.'[1]The presented data seemed unequivocal. Indeed, the unnamed author(s) noted that '(a)n examination of 60 deals – football, basketball, baseball, and hockey teams – found that sponsoring companies' stock prices declined by 22% on...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands