BUFFALO, New York - M&T Bank has signed a 5-year marketing agreement with the Buffalo Bills that gives it high-profile exposure at Ralph Wilson Stadium -- including designation as the stadium's exclusive ATM provider -- and the status of "official bank" of the Buffalo Bills.
Inside the stadium, which has a seating capacity of 73,987, M&T will have five rotating advertising signs, including a 24-by-26 foot tri-vision panel sign on the side of the Jumbotron at the scoreboard end of the field and four 4-by-100-foot long electronic signs at each corner of the stadium.
According to a report in the Buffalo Business Journal, the bank's name will also appear on the M&T Bank Club, an enclosed, climate-controlled section of 450 luxury seats at the corner of the end zone where the Bills enter the field, and on the inflatable tunnel that Bills players emerge from before each game.
Other elements of the marketing agreement, which makes M&T the only financial institution allowed to have a presence at the stadium, give the Buffalo-based bank similar exclusivity, including with ATMs, at training camp at St. John Fisher College in Rochester.
M&T also becomes the only financial institution authorized to use the Bills trademark for promotional purposes.
William Mabee, senior vice-president of retail marketing for M&T, declined to say what the bank paid for the agreement, which expires in the spring of 2008 and can be renegotiated. However, he said the dollar amount is not close to the $75 million the bank said in May it will pay over 15 years to have its name on M&T Bank Stadium, home of the NFL's Baltimore Ravens.
The new marketing agreement is a strengthening of a 10-year partnership the bank has had with the Bills, Mabee told the Business Journal.
For the Bills, the M&T Bank transaction is the second announced naming rights agreement to be disclosed in a week's time. The team announced on Aug. 28 a six-year marketing partnership with The Pepsi Bottling Group Inc. that gives Pepsi exclusive pouring rights at the stadium.
Pepsi-Cola and Aquafina also have been named the official soft drink and bottled water, respectively, of the Buffalo Bills.
