By Thomas Heath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, Aug. 24, 1997; Page D01

When Jack Kent Cooke Stadium and MCI Center open later this year, they will be stuffed with millions of dollars worth of colorful advertising that is targeted more toward the couch potato at home than the fan in the stands.

Consumer giants such as Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Toyota, NationsBank, Sprint, Dodge and MCI Communications have purchased millions in prime advertising space in one or both of the facilities, hoping to catch a ride on television when the cameras pan over their strategically placed signs.

Take the punt arcing through the air at Cooke Stadium, which opens on Sept. 14 when the Washington Redskins play the Arizona Cardinals. As the camera follows its flight path above the field, a brightly lighted sign for the U.S. Postal Service probably will be visible in the background, hanging on the front ledge of the luxury suite level. When Wizards star forward Juwan Howard walks through the tunnel toward the locker room of MCI Center when it opens on Dec. 2, a Budweiser sign will be above him on the portal front. When Capitals right winger Peter Bondra skates into the left corner of the hockey rink inside MCI Center, images of the Powerade athletic drink will dot the walls bordering the rink in full view of the cameras. And when Redskins wide receiver Michael Westbrook makes a touchdown catch, a giant Coca-Cola or Sprint sign will share the screen in the background on the evening highlights.

"We look at these venues as TV production studios," said Coca-Cola marketing specialist Steve Koonin.

As player salaries escalate, stadium advertising is becoming an increasingly important revenue component for professional sports teams, adding millions each year to an owner's bottom line. Sponsorship packages wrapping luxury suites, extra tickets, game promotions and even practice visits around big advertising purchases are commonplace.

The Redskins earned a little more than $250,000 in advertising income last year at RFK Stadium, a figure ranked near the bottom of the 30 NFL teams, according to Financial World magazine. Advertising industry specialists believe the team could earn between $6 million and $8 million a year from sponsorships at the new stadium. That increase could help President John Kent Cooke handle the team's $41.5 million annual player payroll.

MCI Center in downtown Washington likely will earn more than $6 million from signs alone this year, which is a 100 percent increase over US Airways Arena. That could help the Wizards pay for their $35 million payroll, which is fifth highest in the 29-team NBA, or the Capitals' $27 million payroll, sixth highest in the 26-team NHL.

Jon Spoelstra, a sports franchise consultant and author of the book "Ice to the Eskimos," said major league sports teams expect to earn between $5 million and $7 million per year from stadium advertisers, triple the amount three years ago.

Sports teams routinely strike exclusive sponsorship deals with companies in banking, fast foods, domestic and import automobiles, soft drinks, alcohol beverages and telecommunications.

More than two years before the opening of MCI Center, Wizards and Capitals owner Abe Pollin signed Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, US Airways, Washington Gas and Chevy Chase Bank to multiyear charter sponsorships worth about $5 million per year, according to industry specialists. That kind of commitment, along with MCI's 13-year name sponsorship deal worth $44 million, which includes promotions, a luxury suite, game tickets and commercials, can provide a big financial boost early on.

"It's always important" to receive corporate support, Pollin said recently.

Some owners need to sign advertising agreements to be able to borrow money from banks.

"You don't know if anybody is going to come to the games, but if you can prove you can sell advertising, you can use that to get the loan to build the building," said Spoelstra, who helped market the Portland Trail Blazers and New Jersey Nets.

The MCI deal is worth more than $4 million per year, which is more than the $2 million per year that specialists say the Redskins could have collected had they sold the naming rights to Cooke Stadium instead of naming it after their late owner, who died last spring.

Part of the reason for Washington's sponsorship success is located 40 miles north of the District at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Sponsors quickly learned that it is profitable to be associated with an attractive stadium and successful team. Within a couple of years of the opening of the stadium in 1991, the Orioles ranked second in attendance and the team now earns more revenue from advertising than nearly every other team in the major leagues, according to Financial World magazine.

However, some teams have run into trouble with their sponsorships. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was sued by the NFL last year for $300 million after he sold stadium advertising to companies such as Pepsi, American Express and AT&T, which were not official NFL sponsors. The two sides settled the suit last fall and Jones was allowed to keep his sponsorships.

The demand has turned every square inch of a sports venue into potential sources of advertising and income, from the plastic water jugs used by hockey goalies to the miles of wall space that ring stadium corridors. Several big companies have said Washington has the kind of audience that fits perfectly with advertisers.

With the Redskins, for example, "you have an extremely loyal ticket base, the wait list is long. You have upscale, white-collar decision-makers who are influential . . . people who need Internet access, pagers. All of the people who sit in that stadium are potential customers of ours," said Mike Goff, director of corporate sponsorship and event marketing for Kansas City-based Sprint, the long-distance telephone company.

By the same token, MCI said owning the downtown arena's naming rights offers exposure to "a very influential community, from the consumers to the policymakers that live here," said Gretchen Gehrett, executive director of advertising and communications at the long-distance company.

But that exposure isn't cheap.

Several companies said the new Redskins advertising is among the most costly in the NFL, partly because of the national following but also because of the low number (24) of signs in the "bowl" section of the stadium.

"It is our philosophy that less is more," said John Kent Cooke Jr., vice president of marketing for the Redskins.

The 24-by-32-foot signs the Redskins placed low behind each end zone required written permission from the NFL. Advertisers such as Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Sprint and NationsBank, which purchased end zone signs, could pay up to $350,000 or $500,000 a year to be in that spot. For example, to buy a 24-by-32-foot sign that is directly behind the field goal posts costs $500,000. The price is 50 to 100 percent above similarly sized end zone signs, according to several advertisers.

"We jumped on [the end zone signs] because we knew it would have in-telecast visibility," said Sprint's Goff. He and his team of marketers even track how many times their images get on television and then assign an advertising value to it.

NationsBank and Budweiser also were lured by the Redskins' fan loyalty and their strong following among 25- to 54-year-olds. Both companies signed three-year deals that include a sign in each end zone. NationsBank also will have 18 concourse banners, additional concourse signs, the bank's logo on the back of every ticket, three automatic tellers in the stadium, game-day radio spots and a possible in-game promotion that allows a fan two minutes to get all the money they can from an ATM -- with the contest promoted on the stadium's two SONY Jumbotron scoreboards.

The Sports Authority is the official sporting goods sponsor at Cooke Stadium. Its signage and promotion package, which might include in-game commercials, "will be very visible and very expensive," said Jack Smith, the company's chief executive, who declined to name a figure.

Gatorade, which bought a Redskins sponsorship package that includes a luxury suite and seats on the team charter plane to an away game, skipped signage because it prefers the "sideline presence" it receives from having players drink its product during the game.

In addition to the three giant panels in each end zone, Cooke Stadium will have six 4-by-16-foot backlit advertising panels on each sideline costing $100,000 each per season. There also are a pair of 4-by-16-foot signs next to each of the two 45-second clocks that go for $125,000, as do field tunnel signs.

If Sprint chooses to run a 30-second Jumbotron commercial to reach politicians and federal officials who may be in the crowd, the price is $15,000 a season for one commercial per game. Signs above the field tunnels also are $125,000, as are signs above the player tunnels and in the end zone.

But many of the prices vary with the packages companies purchase. For example, Gatorade or Giant Foods may get a break on signage or commercials if they buy one of the three limited sponsorships that cost $15,000, $25,000 and $45,000 per season. The limited sponsorships include everything from advertising in the game program to a picnic at the Redskins' minicamp.

To help them sell all the deals, the Redskins hired Arlington-based ProServ Inc., a sports marketing firm, last month.

Washington Sports President Susan O'Malley, who runs the Wizards and Capitals, said she is reducing the number of backlit signs from about 180 at US Airways Arena to about 100 at MCI Center. The center-hung scoreboard will be filled with advertising, including eight signs that switch to a different company name four times during each event. The scoreboard also will include advertising panels on each of its corners.

O'Malley said they also have dropped sponsors. Car sponsorships are down from seven at US Airways to two at MCI. Banks have dropped from five to one, grocery stores from three to one.

"You have to do two things: Charge more to pay for exclusivity and you have to give them a measurable result," O'Malley said.

In fact, costs have risen.

The Washington Post's exclusive sponsorship jumped from $200,000 per year at US Airways to $500,000 at MCI, according to industry sources. That includes signs on the center scoreboard, advertising around the arena and promotions, according to industry sources.

"It's an opportunity to get an ad message across to a . . . specific sports audience that reads The Washington Post," said Bill Tompkins, vice president of marketing at The Post.

Rotating courtside signs at Wizards games, named "Dorna" after their Italian manufacturer, cost about $125,000 per season at MCI, which industry experts estimate is $25,000 to $50,000 more than the price at US Airways Arena. Budweiser and Washington Gas bought some of these.

Signs on the center scoreboard, which were purchased by nearly all of the charter sponsors, have gone from $150,000 last year to approximately $250,000 this year. Hockey signs on the rink walls within easy view of the television cameras have roughly doubled in cost, from about $50,000 last year to about $100,000 at MCI.

Industry experts estimate that the going rate for Budweiser's name above the four tunnels that lead from MCI Center's auditorium to the locker rooms is between $200,000 and $250,000.

"You should be able to see a Budweiser sign from anywhere," said Peter McLoughlin, vice president of Busch Media Group.

Even stand-alone signs on concourse walls will cost about $15,000 at MCI compared with about $8,000 at US Airways. But advertising placed near scoreboards, game clocks, video screens or hustle-boards cost more because fans frequently look to those locations to check the score or, in a new move by baseball, to see the speed and type of a pitch.

Papa John's has MCI Center's corner on pizza and Boston Market is the fast-food sponsor, O'Malley said. Toyota is the import auto sponsor and Dodge is the domestic. Modell's, which has the exclusive sporting goods sponsorship, will be on the walls that border the ice rink for Capitals games and under the scorer's table for basketball.

Coca-Cola said its Surge soft-drink advertising at Capitals games hits a perfect target audience of young fans, who tend thrive on the speed and physical nature of hockey. The company has matched its Sprite brand with the Wizards to capture a different crowd. Budweiser has built its Bud Ice brand around hockey games.

"The idea is not to flap signs, it's to match brands to the sports," Koonin said.

Even with all of the state-of-the-art advertising schemes at the two local arenas, someone is always ready to go one better.

Next year, NFL's Baltimore Ravens will turn up the advertising wars another notch when they open their new park next to Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The team, which owner Art Modell moved from Cleveland after the 1995 season, will feature a new twist called "moments of exclusivity." Advertisers will pay a premium to have all the stadium's signs turned to their logo at the same time. For a few seconds, the stadium will be one giant commercial.