The quest to be a curious learner took us last weekend to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, a treasure trove of tidbits about the great game which made a visit even for the casual fan so worthwhile. We of course were more than the casual fan, as well as lovers of history, so the two hour spent wandering the halls was so worthwhile.
One of the more interesting notes to come out of the trip tied directly back to our love of the business side of storytelling. Amongst the trophies was the championship trophy for the World Hockey Association, which had a bright and disruptive run that started fifty years ago next month and ended eventually with a merger with the NHL.
The WHA was known for its free wheeling and free spending characters on and off the ice, testing the boundaries of the traditional while venturing literally, to markets that would become growth areas for the NHL of today, and some which never seemed to grab the spotlight on the highest level of hockey.
While there was a good amount of memorabilia of WHA stops, it was the gleaming trophy which leant itself as a forebearer of the sports business today. The silver trophy was the first, and may still be the only, one that was sold to a brand for its naming rights.
The Avco World Trophy, also known as the Avco Cup, were sold to the former Avco Corporation (a name originally derived from “Aviation Company”), a defense contractor who bought the rights to advertise their consumer finance division. In its day, the selling of naming rights, along with even things like dasher board ads, was seen as small time and was dismissed by traditionalists, but a look to today’s world, where for the right price and the right strategic plan, rights can be available for almost everything, selling to a global brand looking for a niche doesn’t seem so crazy.
According to reports, the trophy was donated to the new league in 1972 along with approximately $500,000 by the Avco Financial Services Corporation, and became the first major sports league championship trophy to bear the name of a private corporation. The trophy was retired after the WHA ceased operations in 1979
Ironically the tie to the sports space for Avco, short for The Aviation Corporation didn’t really stop with the loss of the WHA. Avco, a longtime defense contractor, was purchased first in 1984 Avco sold its farm machinery division to White Farm Equipment and Avco was spun off to Associates First Capital in 1998, which itself was acquired by Citigroup in 2000, today still one of the largest investors in the sports and entertainment space, albeit not on a championship trophy.
Now do we think the Lombardi Trophy or the Stanley Cup will ever succumb to a direct naming rights play? No. But who is to say a new league or a growing sport could not find a way to get its name directly associated with a trophy, especially a jeweler or fashion brand down the road.
As the fun history of the WHA comes into focus on the anniversary, it is always interesting to look back on some of the chances taken and eventually implemented into today’s modern sports climate. While naming rights for a trophy my not have fully taken hold, the credit for trying something new, and building value, was the thought, and the execution still lives on in the hallow spaces of the Hall of Fame. Mock no more.
