Football Partnerships

Lanza Group, LLC, Atlanta’s leading Hispanic marketing, PR & events firm, today proudly announced that Little Debbie(R) Snacks is the presenting sponsor for the Soccer Challenge of Fiesta Atlanta ‘09, an outdoor Cinco de Mayo festival celebrating Latino culture, music and food. Fiesta Atlanta ‘09 takes place on Sunday, May 3, 2009 from 10 AM to 7 PM at Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta.

For Little Debbie(R) Snacks, from McKee Foods Corporation, the partnership represents the company’s first marketing investment into the Hispanic community. Last year’s event attracted over 40,000 attendees. “This is a great opportunity for us to start being involved with the Latino community,” said Nancy Castillo-Guzman, Hispanic marketing specialist at Little Debbie(R) Snacks. “We look forward to creating great bridges with this new venture into the community.”

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US billionaire Stan Kroenke has increased his stake in Premier League football club Arsenal to 20.5 per cent after buying shares from fellow director Danny Fiszman.

Kroenke bought 5,000 shares at a cost of £42.5 million ($60 million), making him the second-biggest investor in the north London club behind Russian Alisher Usmanov.

Fiszman sold about a third of his holding, and now has a 16.1 per cent stake. Usmanov’s investment company Red & White Holdings Ltd. owns a 25 per cent stake in the club.

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British online gaming company Sportingbet Plc (SBT.L) said on Tuesday it signed a two-year club sponsorship deal with the Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (Wolves). “The deal, commencing in June 2009, is worth over seven figures and represents the biggest sponsorship agreement in Wolves’ 132-year history,” Sportingbet said in a statement.

The company said Sportingbet.com will become the club’s official betting partner and it would also sponsor Wolves’ website — www.wolves.co.uk.

It will also have a major brand presence at the Molineux Stadium in Wolverhampton and will appear on Wolves’ new shirts and on all technical training kits.

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Fox Soccer Channel beat out ESPN for right to the European Champions League starting next season, adding the top club event to a lineup that already includes the English Premier League and Italy’s Serie A.

Fox Soccer Channel didn’t make an immediate announcement, preferring to wait until documents were signed with the Union of European Football Associations. ESPN, which had held the rights since the 1994-95 season, confirmed the switch.

“We have been informed by UEFA that they are moving ahead with a new partner in the United States,” ESPN said in a statement Monday. “We made a strong bid that we believe would have helped continue the year-to-year growth of the UEFA Champions League in the United States.”

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By Ryan Frank, Helen Jung and Mark Larabee

Soccer fans recently celebrated Portland’s newest big-league team, but Merritt Paulson’s proposal to bring Major League Soccer to town rests on a shaky and expensive financial plan that’s far from finished.

Paulson’s $88.8 million deal with the city is weighed down with a $26.8 million hole. The city also must move $36.2 million in costly, hard-to-sell bonds amid the worst financial crisis in decades.

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