Bad news for MVC

[tornado]

I have no official confirmation but just heard from a fairly impeccable source that State Farm is no longer going to sponsor MVC functions, championships, etc... after this season...or perhaps next.
Plus I heard the Valley is exploring other major sponsorships to try to replace State Farm.
This would be a huge loss of a good, longstanding sponsor for Valley events...
Has anyone else heard anything of this?

[SFP]

I would suspect they believe they get more bang for their bucks with football. Does anyone have a report of the demographics of the MVC? I'd speculate it is shrinking on various levels.

[understandingthetruth]

State Farm leaving? .....

Could it be the over-reaching arms of the one too many officials on the floor slowing every game at times almost to a standstill? The constant addition of more and more nonsensical rules insuring they must be there to watch over everything instead of laying back and letting a fast paced and fun game unfold? The circus-like atmosphere provided by the 2nd grade level antics every time out? The microphone magic - men who both tell us a paragraph when only a few words are needed and believe the crowd is there to hear them and not watch a basketball game? Cheerleaders who do a better job of siphoning off any buzz of electricity in the crowd with chants too fast for any one to understand or too worn out to create any want of taking part in than helping charge up the home crowd for the home team? Could it indeed be all of these 'little things' alone amounting to not much more than anything together destroying any or all interest in people either supporting, going to or carrying the games in any way?

[tornado]

nope - I think it is well proven that good advertising gimmicks like Geico found with their cavemen ads - pay off dollar for dollar - better than sponsorships...
they just want the best bang for their buck and after they pump a few million into the MVC Conference Championship - surveys show them that 90% of the people who watch on TV and even 90% of the people who attend cannot identify the company that is the main corporate sponsor when interviewed on their way out the door of the arena.

[Bravesfan]

nope - I think it is well proven that good advertising gimmicks like Geico found with their cavemen ads - pay off dollar for dollar - better than sponsorships...
they just want the best bang for their buck and after they pump a few million into the MVC Conference Championship - surveys show them that 90% of the people who watch on TV and even 90% of the people who attend cannot identify the company that is the main corporate sponsor when interviewed on their way out the door of the arena.

Well you can thank "Flo" for this. I remember seeing the first Progressive Insurance commercials with her back during the first CBI tournament in 2008 when Bradley was playing there! Her and Geico certainly have cut into State Farm's brand, though SF does have a long running ad campaign of their own, but not half as funny as these other two companies. Their radio ads with "Jerry Newman" are not funny at all, and the only two SF ads that have been funny are the "Jake from State Farm" ad and the one where the woman finds her "French model" boyfriend on the internet! Obviously they are trying to remain relevant, but I think the cavemen and Flo have done a better job creating memorable ads. And they are supposed to be cheaper companies too.

[lefty]

nope - I think it is well proven that good advertising gimmicks like Geico found with their cavemen ads - pay off dollar for dollar - better than sponsorships...
they just want the best bang for their buck and after they pump a few million into the MVC Conference Championship - surveys show them that 90% of the people who watch on TV and even 90% of the people who attend cannot identify the company that is the main corporate sponsor when interviewed on their way out the door of the arena.

Sponsorships are tough. They seem very expensive for what you get and it's extremely hard to measure the impact ....it's not easy to measure tv and other ads either but the money you spend on a few days for a tournament can be better spent for a longer time in other forms of media.

[doug shank's crossover]

Could it be the over-reaching arms of the one too many officials on the floor slowing every game at times almost to a standstill? The constant addition of more and more nonsensical rules insuring they must be there to watch over everything instead of laying back and letting a fast paced and fun game unfold? The circus-like atmosphere provided by the 2nd grade level antics every time out? The microphone magic - men who both tell us a paragraph when only a few words are needed and believe the crowd is there to hear them and not watch a basketball game? Cheerleaders who do a better job of siphoning off any buzz of electricity in the crowd with chants too fast for any one to understand or too worn out to create any want of taking part in than helping charge up the home crowd for the home team? Could it indeed be all of these 'little things' alone amounting to not much more than anything together destroying any or all interest in people either supporting, going to or carrying the games in any way?

No.

[Chico]

Could it be the over-reaching arms of the one too many officials on the floor slowing every game at times almost to a standstill? The constant addition of more and more nonsensical rules insuring they must be there to watch over everything instead of laying back and letting a fast paced and fun game unfold? The circus-like atmosphere provided by the 2nd grade level antics every time out? The microphone magic - men who both tell us a paragraph when only a few words are needed and believe the crowd is there to hear them and not watch a basketball game? Cheerleaders who do a better job of siphoning off any buzz of electricity in the crowd with chants too fast for any one to understand or too worn out to create any want of taking part in than helping charge up the home crowd for the home team? Could it indeed be all of these 'little things' alone amounting to not much more than anything together destroying any or all interest in people either supporting, going to or carrying the games in any way?

Doubt if these facts had anything to do with it, but they sure take the crowd out of the game during timeouts.

[tornado]

State Farm is definitely out starting this season - and the MVC Arch Madness will continue without one of their very best & biggest sponsors for years..

They still have a few sponsors - Casey's, Purina Dog Chow, and supposedly Chevrolet is coming on...


Last year's 2012 Missouri Valley Tournament was actually named the
"The 2012 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Men's Basketball Championship"

and here was the logo......




State Farm also sponsored the Women's Conference Championship (LINK), as well as multiple other championships - track, soccer, volleyball, golf, baseball...
in fact just last year they were bragging...
"State Farm Insurance is a long-time sponsor of the Missouri Valley Conference and serves as title sponsor for all 18 MVC championship events.
Also, State Farm is a prominent sponsor of the league's television network and a sponsor of the Missouri Valley Conference's community outreach program, "Just Read!"


but this year's tourney ads and web pages no longer even mention State Farm...

The MVC Volleyball Championships just went off without any name sponsor...

http://www.mvc-sports.com/volleyball/news/2012-13/6289/2012-mvc-volleyball-championship/

and yet State Farm is still sponsoring the big holiday high school basketball tourney

[AFrey]

Well you can thank "Flo" for this. I remember seeing the first Progressive Insurance commercials with her back during the first CBI tournament in 2008 when Bradley was playing there! Her and Geico certainly have cut into State Farm's brand, though SF does have a long running ad campaign of their own, but not half as funny as these other two companies. Their radio ads with "Jerry Newman" are not funny at all, and the only two SF ads that have been funny are the "Jake from State Farm" ad and the one where the woman finds her "French model" boyfriend on the internet! Obviously they are trying to remain relevant, but I think the cavemen and Flo have done a better job creating memorable ads. And they are supposed to be cheaper companies too.

I'm a Packers fan so I'm admittedly biased here, but I'll take the State Farm discount double-check commercials over "Flo" and that dumb gecko any day.

[AZ BU Fan]

I'm hoping we get 'Mayhem' for a MVC/MVC Tournament Title Sponsor, not those cut rate insurance companies like Flo and the Gecko!

[tornado]

Well State Farm seems to be saying two different things...

they dropped out of their sponsorship role for the MVC Tourney...

and some of the talk about their reasons - was they were getting out of sports sponsorships ...but this appears now to have been untrue...

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9225290/illinois-fighting-illini-assembly-hall-renamed-state-farm-center

[TNel]

Very surprising.

[wily coyote]

Well State Farm seems to be saying two different things...

they dropped out of their sponsorship role for the MVC Tourney...

and some of the talk about their reasons - was they were getting out of sports sponsorships ...but this appears now to have been untrue...
http://espn.go.com/chicago/mens-coll...te-farm-center

State Farm can sink all the money they want into the Assembly Hall and call it anything they want but it will always be the "Assembly Hall" to me. As you can tell change doesn't come easy for me.lol

[tornado]

I know - I still call the Rosemont and the Chicago Stadium by the names they should be called...and I think we still have time to change ours to the obvious "Fieldhouse" instead of Ren-Col which sounds like something this lady is selling