Showgirls and confetti help vegas.com President Howard Lefkowitz, far left, and Las Vegas Monorail Co. President Curtis Myles, far right, unveil a marketing partnership Thursday in front of the monorail's Las Vegas Hilton station, where a vegas.com-themed train can be seen. Photo by Gary Thompson.
Las Vegas Monorail officials plan to court the National Basketball Association to be its next sponsor ahead of the NBA's 2007 All-Star Game in Las Vegas, in hopes of trading event exposure for a needed cash boost.
Work is under way to put together a station and train sponsorship offer to present to the NBA, monorail officials confirmed after a Thursday news conference unveiling an unrelated marketing partnership with the travel Web site vegas.com.
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There have been no formal talks with the NBA, though there have been informal discussions about marketing and sponsorship alliances between the league, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and Las Vegas City Hall.
"We're trying to have the appropriate discussions to make that come about," said Curtis Myles, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Monorail Co.. He has his own basketball pedigree as a former player at Colorado State University.
Such a proposal could include an NBA-themed station featuring interactive basketball exhibits and displays, and a train wrapped with NBA ads outside and more interactive features inside.
"Something that's fun and interactive and entertaining," said Patrick Pharris, president of Promethean Partners, which has been charged to set up sponsorship deals for the monorail. "Everyone's behind this (locally). It would be great to have a sports-themed station."
Selling station sponsorships and advertising wraps around trains is a key part of the troubled monorail's plan to make a profit. The rail line is believed to have lost about $20 million last year amid sluggish ridership and revenues that were half what was expected.
In recent months, the monorail has landed new sponsorships from General Motors and BankWest of Nevada, among other companies.
Currently, six of nine trains are sponsored, but only two of seven stations are, according to Myles.
Base annual sponsorship rates are $1 million per train and $2 million per station, though that price is negotiable and officials have declined to specify cash amounts of specific deals.
Most have also been multi-year in nature, though the monorail's deals with GM and vegas.com are six-month pacts.
Given the time it would take to implement a marketing campaign, Myles said he hopes to have a proposal submitted to and considered by the NBA in the next few months.
Myles said a proposed marketing campaign with the NBA could result in a station and train being decked out NBA-style for as little as the week before the game, or for as long as months beforehand.
"Whether the NBA is interested in some sort of long-term thing like that, we'll have to see," Myles said.
