Bailout Bowl – Football Bowl Games Sponsored by Bailout Recipients

Written by lame

Tax dollars have been hard at work play. Some of those high profile sponsors of college football bowl games were big recipients of TARP bailout money.

Who is enriched? Follow a simplified money trail. Your tax dollars … to the government … to banks in the form of a bailout … to ad agencies … to TV … to the NCAA … to the coffers of rich college athletic programs.

In a WSJ article “The Bailout Bowl: Big-Game Sponsors Scored Billions,” we get some numbers and great quotes.

Citigroup: sponsor of the “Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi,” recipient of $25 billion capital plus another $25 billion investment in bailout money. (Also purchaser of naming rights to the Mets’ new stadium, Citi Field.)

Bank of America: sponsor of the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl, recipient of $15 billion from TARP.

U.S. Bancorp: sponsor of the Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl

Eagle Bancorp: sponsor of the EagleBank Bowl, recipient of $38.2 million from TARP

GMAC: sponsor of the GMAC Bowl

Capital One: sponsor of the Capital One Bowl

Some great quotes:

“Some of the advertising folks at these firms might think it’s important to put their corporate brand on public events, but taxpayers might think they’re being taken for a ride,” said Pete Sepp, vice president for policy and communications at the National Taxpayers Union.

Rep. Scott Garrett (R., N.J.) ,,, questioned why banks — which reportedly aren’t using federal funds to lend to consumers as intended — need to sponsor nationally televised sporting events. “The irony is these guys aren’t lending to people, so what are they advertising for?” Mr. Garrett said.

“There’s interestingly zero sense of shame” from banks paying for vanity advertising, said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

There has always been big money in college sports (in recent history at least), mainly for the top men’s major sports programs, primarily football and basketball. The big money part is not new.

Federal funding of college bowl games is the new twist. Hopefully, a backlash of consumer sentiment will cause these recipeients of bailout money to spend less on advertising and more on lending and shoring up their businesses.