Today the Star-Telegram shared some news that we wrote about last month: the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee has secured two more corporate $1 million sponsors but won’t reveal their secret identities yet. You’ll likely hear the (big) names later this month.
But what about the difference between the numbers in our headlines: I told you there are 12, while the Star-T is trumpeting the undisclosed sponsors as the ninth and the 10th?
Well, they’re talking about “founding” sponsors. I was initially told that Corporate Magic (which is providing in-kind services) and Jerry and Gene Jones (who gave $1 million for the NFL’s Youth Education Town project and were strangely not mentioned at all in the Star-T article) would count towards the 15 million-dollar (founding) sponsorships that the Host Committee had hoped to (and failed) to secure by the end of 2009.
Today, when I called to ask, I was told differently. So there are 12 million-dollar sponsorships pledged to the Host Committee, but only 10 of those are considered “founding sponsorships.” But all of them count towards reaching the committee’s $30 million budget goal.
Now, about Tom Hicks.The Star-T piece hints that there may be some uncertainty surrounding Hicks’ pledge: “The Texas Rangers were originally listed as a founding sponsor, and the Host Committee has been negotiating with owner Tom Hicks and the team through its sale.”
Host Committee spokesman Tony Fay confirmed to me that they’re still counting on the contribution from Hicks, though they’ve not yet got his cash on hand. But should they be relying on this, given the uncertainty with the Rangers and its sale?
