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Thursday, June 1, 2000
Steinberg inks
big Reebok deal
for Hawaii
Also plans deepened involvement
By Pat Bigold
in UH sports marketing
Star-BulletinLeigh Steinberg and Reebok announced a three-year apparel deal with the University of Hawaii's football program this morning. But Steinberg in a phone interview said the deal is only the tip of the iceberg for the Rainbows athletic programs.
He said he will be in town next week to finalize a deal that would essentially make the firm of Steinberg, Moorad & Dunn the athletic department's marketing director.
"We're talking about how wide the expanse of our marketing would be wth them," said Steinberg.
"I think I will be going there next week to work out the final details. "
Steinberg ackowledged that it is possible he could install one or two full-time people to handle marketing at the university.
"We still think there are golden opportunities at the university in terms of the athletic department. And Reebok is just the beginning."
Last month, the firm signed a $100,000-a-year, five-year consulting deal with UH.
Steinberg said the financial benefits of the Reebok deal would be "roughly $100,000" a year. Previously the university had an apparel deal with Nike, but indications are that the Reebok ageement is worth about 15 times more per year than that one was.
"Reebok will have a presence at the games and working at camps," said Steinberg.
Peter Miller, director of baseball and football operation for Reebok, said the football deal annually includes one set of free uniforms, practice gear, footwear, gloves, wrist bands, a Reebok coaches' package, and a supplemental bowl game package, if necessary.
"From top to bottom, it will be everything needed to outfit what we consider to be a quality football program in the NCAA," said Miller.
The deal will allow the coaches to continue wearing traditional aloha shirts from Local Motion on the sideline during games at Aloha Stadium.
"They will still do the Hawaiian look," said Miller.
Asked to put the UH deal in perspective with Reeboks' relationship with the rest of the NCAA, Miller mentioned similar agreements with Baylor, Texas Tech,and Rice.
Athletic director Hugh Yoshida said he was happy to be working with Reebok, and added that he was interested in seeing what could be done to provide apparel for other athletic programs at the university.
But Miller said there are no immediate plans to expand Reebok's sponsorship to other sports at the university.
Steinberg said he has become involved in the search to replace baseball head coach Les Murakami.
"They've asked our advice on that," he said. "We have in the past represented several baseball coaches and we know that market pretty well. We happen to be plugged into the great gossip community of coaching."
He did not mention any names.
"With June having made the switch, it's the concept of the viability of Hawaii," said Steinberg, obviously alluding to the possibility of another big-name coach coming to Manoa. "If you have the coach of the year coming from Hawaii, that's go to open some eyes. You can make it big-time here."
