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LeBron james is going global by going to Boston.  LRMR Marketing, his and Maverick Carter's marketing company is forming a partnership with Fenway Sports Management, a subsidiary of Fenway Sports Group, the holding company formed by John Henry and Tom Werner that owns the Boston Red Sox, the regional cable television channel NESN, 50% of Fenway Roush Racing, a NASCAR racing team and the iconic English Premier League club Liverpool FC.

The Partnership will be the exclusive means through which LeBron conducts his marketing and endorsement activities worldwide.  In a statement announcing the partnership, Maverick Carter had this to say about his and LeBron's rationale for entering the agreement:

"Tom and John have created an innovative company that owns some of the greatest clubs and biggest brands in all of sports," said Maverick Carter, CEO of LRMR.  "Like LRMR, it is a fast-growing organization with incredible energy and passion for what they're doing. This partnership will allow us to dramatically expand our reach and opportunities, not only in the U.S. but in markets around the world." 


In addition to the marketing and endorsement arrangements, LeBron  and Carter will acquire a ten percent in Liverpool.  Expect to see some interesting global marketing promotions involving James and Liverpool together.  Undoubtedly, a major focus of the partnershipi will be China.  LeBron has been very active there leading up to and following the Beijing Olympics and I'm confident that Henry and Werner would love to see Liverpool colors all over the country.  After all, Liverpool's jerseys are red.  It is one area 

I know I haven't done this in a while but I will try to be a little better about it going forward.  In any event, here is this week's installment, which started on Tuesday but didn't get published until Wednesday:

The NCAA basketball tournament has been a cultural and financial success for years, funding up to 96% of the NCAA's budget for the last few years and generating huge television ratings.  However, there has always been several elements of controversy that have followed the tournament.  The selection of teams has left some schools feeling cheated as they were not invited and left the two schools playing the first game in Dayton feeling a bit like stepchildren having to play a qualifying game.

The logo for the London 2012 Olympics has been criticized repeatedly since its release in June, 2007, but always because of its design.  It has been called everything from "bloody crap" to worse and most reaction seemed to lean charitably towards saying that it was a reminder of the 80s, not that this was necessarily a good thing mind you. 

Marvel comics inspired NBA team covers appeared on ESPN The Magazine's NBA preview edition in the first of the NBA-Marvel partnering efforts.  I'm guessing those covers were a success because the NBA and Marvel have just announced that they are launching a new line of clothing pairing  famous Marvel superheroes with famous NBA teams.  Imagine the Hulk and the Celtics (think green) and Spiderman and the Knicks (the webslinger prowls Gotham).  Since the pairing is only famous superheroes and famous teams, I imagine that means we won't be seeing the Memphis Grizzlies paired with a superhero anytime soon.

Without seeing the clothing line, it's a bit premature to speculate on the success of the venture.  However, Marvel characters are very popular now, fueled by the success of the recent run of Marvel movies: Spiderman (and sequels) , X-Men (and sequels), Wolverine and Iron Man I and II, with more: Thor, Captain America and The Avengers, on the way.   The saturation marketing movies seem to get coupled with the ever present NBA ought to guarantee success.  The clothing line just has to not be too ugly to succeed.

One other point about this partnership that we should not overlook is the deep and extensive partnership that the NBA has with Marvel's parent corporation, Disney.  You may recall that Disney is also the owner of ESPN and ABC, two of the NBA's longstanding broadcast partners, so this is just another exercise of corporate synergy at work.

The Packers may have won the game on the field, but the game on the screen - the battle for the hearts and minds of the TV ad viewers ended in a tie.  The consumer created Doritos ad featuring a guy who pays big for teasing a hungry pug with Dorito chips finished in a tie atop the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter.

To help get you ready for tonight, here are the top 10 ads, as determined by Mae Anderson, business reporter for the AP:

The NBA has long banned performance enhancing drugs and now it has, for the first time in league history, banned a performance enhancing shoe.  The new Concept 1 shoe by Athletic Propulsion Labs, a $300 basketball shoe containing a spring-based system said to enhance a wearer's vertical leap by as much as 31/2 inches.  The NBA said in a statement: "Under league rules, players may not wear any shoe during a game that creates an undue competitive advantage."

Can there be a better marketing hook for a basketball shoe than "Banned by the NBA"?  Athletic Propulsion Labs certainly doesn't think so.  A visit to their home page greets you with the image of stamp with that label covering most of the home page.  It's perhaps the ultimate slogan for a basketball shoe and despite the $300 price tag I expect these shoes will fly out of APL's warehouse.

The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, the olympics for the horse set, open this week in Lexington. It will be the first time the Games have ever been held in North America and Lexington, a rather sleepy town of 250,000 nestled in the Bluegrass of Kentucky is preparing for a worldwide invasion of 800,000 people over the next two weeks. Competition will take place in eight different disciplines, which , unless you are involved in the horse business in some way, breeder, rider, relative of the foregoing or a really devoted fan, you will not be familiar with most of them.  I know that I wasn't and I used to be heavily involved in the thoroughbred racing and breeding industry.

Have you ever heard of Alltech?  I thought not.  The title sponsor of the Games is a Central Kentucky based company that is a world leader in animal health and nutrition, including  horse feed supplements and beer, algae and to be introduced at the World Equestrian Games, coffee.  Alltech originally committed $10 million to become the title sponsor of the Games.  As the planning for the Games continued, Alltech realized an opportunity to strengthen its brand recognition and the ability of Lexington to put on a successful Games if it committed additional money and manpower to the organizing committee.  To date, Alltech has spent about $30 million and, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader, "the line between  the Games organization and Alltech has seemed increasingly blurred."  Alltech pllans to use the Games to roll out several new products and to build relationships with 67 customer companies. 

There is no doubt that Alltech's involvement in the planning and marketing of the Games has been unusal.  Jim Host, former CEO of Host Communications and a ground breaker in the field of sports marketing said of Alltech: "I don't think we'll see anything like this again. I've never seen anybody execute better what's been done by Alltech. And it's helped the games."

Madison Square Garden is about to undergo a massive $800 million phased renovation that will not be completed until 2013, but when finished will create an essentially new MSG.  If a recent story by Sports Business Journal is correct, then a significant portion of the financing for the project has been secured in the largest ever sponsor/arena rights deal, as JP Morgan Chase is paying $300 million for a ten year deal to become the marquee sponsor of the new MSG.  It is important to note, that the Garden has not sold the naming rights to the building, which will continue to be named Madison Square Garden, but that JP Morgan Chase will have naming rights inside the building, including the old Felt Forum, will have extensive media rights, and will have media and ticketing rights that extend to all MSG properties, which include Radio City Music Hall, the Chicago Theater and the Beacon Theater. 

Interestingly, the three largest naming rights deals in North America have all involved financial institutions, and, not surprisingly, have been in New York City.  This deal eclipses the $20 million per year that Barclays is paying to put its name on the arena under construction in Brooklyn that will be the new home of the Nets and the $20 million per year that Citibank is paying the Mets for the rights to Citi Field.  Each of those deals, however, run for 20 years.

Loyalty is often a strange thing in professional sports. It's often dictated by what have you done for me in the last five minutes especially when you're talking about the relationship between an athlete and a company whose product that athlete endorses.

Usain Bolt just re-upped with Puma, a company he has been with since he first started running. The contract, whose terms were not disclosed, is believed to be in the neighborhood of $15 million a year and runs until 2013. That covers the 2012 London Olympics and two world championships. A Puma representative indicated that "by far the largest ever given to a track and field athlete, positioning Bolt as a top earner in the world of sport.�

Clearly, money had something to do with the renewal of the relationship, but it was Bolt's comments that interested me the most. He said: �Puma�s been by my side since the beginning, before anyone knew what I was capable of achieving. They saw potential in me and they took a chance, supporting me all the way, especially when things weren�t easy for me due to injuries I suffered in my teens.� It's a refreshing attitude that all professional sports need more of not just track and field, but then Bolt is a special character as well as the world's fastest human.

A few inks to get Tuesday off to a good start: