NFL, Corporations Say Thanks With Football Tickets

The Super Bowl is like a favorite child to corporate big daddies--a way for the National Football League to thank its sponsors and a way for corporations to reward its top executives and sales personnel. “We wish we had more tickets, and we wish we could do more to take care of Joe Fan, but you also want to take care of the corporations that make the game bigger by what they bring to the community and the hotels,” said Jim Steeg, the NFL’s director of special events. The NFL distributes 12,000 tickets to the television networks and major corporate sponsors such as Ford Motor Co. and Nissan. Nissan has bought five 30-second commercial spots at $525,000 each for the Jan. 20 game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Miami Dolphins. “In Ford’s case, we’ve taken care of some portion of their ticket request every time,” Steeg said. “Ford and Chrysler go back to the dark ages with us. Ford was a sponsor back in the ‘50s. Chrysler was a major sponsor of the old AFL.” In turn, corporations treat their most valued executives and sales personnel to a lavish trip to the big game. Ford, for example, is treating 750 of its best truck sales people and their spouses to a long weekend of shows and parties, including a catered lunch in a private tent outside Stanford Stadium on the day of the game. Cost: $1 million. Nissan’s 700 guests will dine on a seafood buffet in a stadium-side tent decorated to look like a forest. “We think it’s well worth the money we spend,” said Dave Pohlod, Ford sales promotion manager. NFL Properties, a league subsidiary that sells souvenirs and advertising for NFL publications, has reserved much of the posh St. Francis Hotel on Union Square for 1,400 special guests. “We’ll have a lot of major executives from the major corporations we do business with. We have advertisers, and they bring along a lot of their top clients,” NFL Properties spokesman Rusty Martin said. “It’s a major business expense for us because the Super Bowl is a merchandising tool that we use.” That means it’s tax deductible, the Internal Revenue Service said. “If there is a real business relationship, it’s like giving the advertisers a holiday turkey at Thanksgiving,” IRS spokesman Joe Calderaro said. “It’s promotional, and a legitimate business deduction.” Companies that use the Super Bowl trip as part of a sales incentive program for their employees must include its “fair market value” on the employees’ tax forms under “other compensation.”