Rapids Sponsored By Transamerica

Well, didn't see that coming!  Colorado announced today that they have made a deal with Transamerica to be the jersey sponsor for the next two seasons.  Quite a turn around from the Ciao debacle of the offseason.  The sponsorship total was not announced but the team did work through Denver based Impression Sports & Entertainment which is a departure from how the team has pursued this in the past.  The deal is for two years but can be extended.  This is below the MLS threshold of 3 years that was announced but I'm thinking that getting out of the Ciao hole might have played into that.  1 year of Ciao + 2 years of Transamerica = 3 years.  The sponsorship will also include the youth teams, which is a nice touch.

The first reaction was that Transamerica was an odd choice.  A San Francisco based company sponsoring a Denver team, especially with the Earthquakes needing a sponsor?  It turns out that Transamerica has 350 employees in the Tech Center and is in the process of taking over a chunk of the CenturyLink building downtown, with plans to hire up to another 300 employees in Denver.  So not that unusual in that light.

As far as what this will do for the team on the field its hard to tell.  Hinchey had this to say in the Post:

Hinchey said the Rapids had already planned the 2015 budget — including adding new designated players — prior to the deal.

The new infusion of cash, he said, could help bring the club somewhere it's never been before: breaking even or possibly turning a profit.

Its hard to interpret that quote.  does that mean they already planned to spend money and this will just help, or does that mean that none of the money will go into the team in 2015 but it may make the team profitable?  We'll have to see what kind of moves the Rapids make in the near future.

Overall this is a big win by the Rapids.  Great move by Hinchey and the Front Office to sign well known and well respected company as the sponsor.  We won't see any Ciao funny business with Transamerica.