Grow Learfield

We took Action

It's official. Today we're announcing the acquisition of Action Sports Media, along with ISP Sports, which will immediately provide us rights to arena and stadium signage with seven university partners -- Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Purdue, South Carolina, University of South Florida, Elon and Portland. In addition, we will now represent Rupp Arena, the famed home to University of Kentucky basketball in Lexington.

Immediately welcome these former Action employees to our family: Keith Burdette (Rupp Arena); Tiffany Spartz (Purdue); Gerry Dickey (OSU) and Matt Kolasinski (Portland).  I’ll report more on them later.  All the trade media had this story weeks ago, but we finally closed this afternoon.  Ben Sutton of ISP and Greg Brown were key in this; our new CFO, Paul Schofer was chained to his telephone for the last two months.  Thanks guys.  Appreciate you.

--clyde

Western Athletic Conference teams with Learfield Sports

Welcome the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) to our Learfield Sports family. This league relationship is a natural fit for us as we already represent five of its nine member schools -- Fresno State, Idaho, Nevada, San Jose State and Utah State.

Commissioner Karl Benson has provided stellar leadership for the WAC for 13 years, and we're pleased to have the opportunity to work with him now on the Conference level. Our eight-year agreement includes selling title sponsorships and managing the corporate partner program. [News release]

Wild about the Wildcats

The University of New Hampshire has officially become our newest school partner, and a press announcement is being made today. UNH is outsourcing its athletic rights for the first time, and we're happy to have been selected to work with AD Marty Scarano and his team to help build the Wildcats' program moving forward.

Our 10-year agreement begins with the 2008-'09 academic year, but of course we're already well under way. The "Wildcat Sports Properties" team will soon be established to manage and sell signage at the University's key athletic venues and handle various marketing rights. New Hampshire now joins Maine as another Learfield Sports' school in the Hockey East Conference.