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More than $1 million in sponsorships from two football games played at Paul Brown Stadium (PBS) this season were postponed for future sporting events hosted at the University of Cincinnati.

UC and Cincinnati Bengals sponsors Skyline Chili and Gold Star Chili, respectively, were among several conflicting sponsors for the two-game experiment at Paul Brown Stadium.

The Cincinnati Enquirer previously reported Nov. 15 that UC would sacrifice as much as $1.04 million in sponsorship dollars for the two games at PBS — a misrepresentation,according to UC.

“We do not have millions of dollars less now than before,” said Doug Mosley, associate athletic director for media at UC.

The sponsors knew before the season began and have been very cooperative in relocating their venues for sponsorship later this year — some for basketball games at Fifth Third Arena, Mosley said.
“We have worked with — and continue to work with — our partners to identify other events and inventory value to replace value from the two games,” said a high ranking representative of IMG College — UC’s multimedia rights partner — who requested not to be named.
IMG College is a division of IMG Worldwide, a world-premier sport, media and entertainment company.

“We continue to work with our clients and many of the clients have agreed on new venues,” the IMG representative said.

The revenues from the game are unavailable at this time, the IMG representative said.

UC took two games to Paul Brown to test the waters, Mosley said.
“Ticket sales at Paul Brown were well beyond what we can distribute at Nippert Stadium,” Mosley said. “We took our most attractive conference games to test results.”

UC is eyeing options for a new stadium, but the university is not committing to anything yet, Mosley said.

A new venue on campus is very unlikely, Mosley said.

“The problem with a new stadium is, where you would put it, there is no room,” Mosley said. “UC is in a city; there are not acres and acres of land nearby.”

Nippert Stadium — the home to UC football for more than 100 years — is unlikely to go unused if UC were to move to Paul Brown or another stadium, Mosley said.

“No one is looking to close the doors on Nippert,” Mosley said. “It would be used in some capacity.”

Paul Brown would give UC fans the option to premium seating and plenty of restrooms, Mosley said.

“UC is very open to feedback, and taking two games to Paul Brown gave us the opportunity to collect that feedback.”