Okay, they've got the American Airlines Theatre in Times Square in Midtown New York, and now they have a New York Yankees team that has as an official airline Delta, that Atlanta carrier. Both sponsorships are slightly jarring since neither of these is really a New York City airline. American sort of was, back in the day, until Bob Crandall upped and moved it to Dallas in 1979. But you have to ask, what airline would or could be New York's hometown airline? You could make the argument for American, for the reasons above, or you could make the argument for Continental, because it absorbed what used to be New York Air (famed for its "Flying Nosh" on-board snack). And now Southwest is moving into LaGuardia, but they're truly Texan. JetBlue? They're from Longggisland, not New York, and in any case they aren't that big. Leaving aside the larger question - is there real value to airlines in such expensive thngs as corporate sponsorships - we have to ask: anyone have any nominations?
Delta also sponsors the Braves in its hometown, and (still) has sponsorship of the Reds in Cincinnati. It bumped Continental from a Yankees sponsorship, and Continental also gave up its sponsorship of an arena out in Jersey's Meadowlands,
to be bumped by Izod. Of course, there are other opportunities: New York's other big baseball team, the Mets, move into a new home next spring, tentatively called Citi Field after the big but troubled bank. An airline could buy the naming rights from Citi's new owners, the Feds, alos known as the US Treasury, and perhaps rename it Henry Paulson Field after the Treasury Secretary (left).
Leave a comment