The Los Angeles Dodgers have signed a four-year sponsorship deal with financial services firm John Hancock Financial Services Inc. The deal gives the company permanent signage on the front wall of the bleachers and a rotating sign behind home plate for a half-inning every game at Dodger Stadium.
For the first time, the Dodgers were also able to offer spring training amenities to John Hancock as part of the deal, thanks to construction of the new facility Camelback Ranch-Glendale in Arizona. The financial company will be able to offer private batting practice events at the new ballpark for clients and employees.
“This is the first deal that we’ve done for Camelback,” said Steve Spartin, Dodgers vice president. “We’re excited that it’s in our backyard.”
The Dodgers deal is the second one with a Major League Baseball team for John Hancock. The company also sponsors its hometown Boston Red Sox in the American League, but wanted to have a sponsorship agreement with a team in the National League, too. Partnering with the Dodgers gave John Hancock an opportunity to expand its presence in the L.A. market.
It’s not the first time the financial services firm has donned cleats. From 2000-05, John Hancock had a multimillion-dollar sponsorship of the Major League Baseball organization. As part of that deal, it was the title sponsor of the MLB All-Star Game. However, the company did not renew that sponsorship when it expired four years ago.
Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and John Hancock have similar interests beyond baseball. McCourt became primary owner and operator of the Los Angeles Marathon starting with the 2009 race; John Hancock has been a longtime sponsor of the Boston Marathon, where it contributes the $806,000 prize money.
John Hancock is a unit of Manulife Financial Corp., a Canadian financial services group. The company primarily operates in the United States as John Hancock and is one of the largest life insurers in the United States.
The deal is the most recent of several that the Dodgers have signed with national companies. The team has also signed sponsorship agreements with auto manufacturer Hyundai and retailer Best Buy, among others.
Golf Game
Rancho Vista Golf Course, a privately held public golf course in Palmdale, has brought in Orange County-based Western Golf Properties as management.
“If managed correctly, a third party should save the owner much more than their fee,” said Bobby Heath, chief executive of Western Golf.
The golf industry has been hard hit by the economy. Last year, the total number of courses in the United States declined as more courses closed than were replaced by new construction. That reduction is felt the hardest in areas where communities were built around a course.
Despite the high foreclosure rate in Palmdale and its surrounding areas, Heath expects Rancho Vista to survive the downturn and come out stronger.
“Rancho Vista is well known in its marketplace,” Heath said. “We like its possibilities for growth.”
Rancho Vista was built in 1999 and features the design of famed golf architect Ted Robinson. It features an 18-hole course with four sets of tees ranging from 5,262 to 6,632 yards.
In addition to Rancho Vista, Western Golf manages a total of 14 golf properties nationwide, including local course TPC Valencia.
Park Party
A former Downey manufacturing site where space shuttles were built has found new life as a public park with baseball and soccer fields.
The city of Downey will open its first public park in 35 years when it celebrates the Fourth of July at the Discovery Sports Complex.
The 11-acre park is built at Boeing’s former aerospace manufacturing site. The other parts of the site were developed as a retail center, television studio, Kaiser Hospital and Columbia Science Center. The park will open with a city-funded $50,000 fireworks celebration.
The city chose the names Discovery and Columbia as a tribute to the NASA space shuttles with those names that were built at the Boeing site. The city also considered opening the park July 20 in order to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, but opted for Independence Day once it became apparent that the park would be complete by then.
The site’s prior occupants included North American Rockwell Co., which built the NASA shuttles, and its successor in the shuttle program, Boeing Co. Vultee Co. used the facilities on the site to build fighter planes for World War II.
Staff reporter David Nusbaum can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 236.
