From the Sun-Times:
No sale! State dumps contract with firm to peddle naming rights deals
TEAM SERVICES | It was supposed to yield up to $300M; the actual take was $315,000
April 14, 2008
BY JACLYN BRENNING Sun-Times Springfield Bureau
SPRINGFIELD -- A highly touted initiative Gov. Blagojevich's office once said could rake in $300 million for the state through corporate sponsorships and naming-rights deals met a quiet death in February after netting the state a paltry $315,000.
The four-year deal between the Blagojevich administration and Team Services, a Maryland-based consulting group, was hatched in 2004 on the premise it could bring the state anywhere from $40 million in the first year to $300 million in three years.
But Team Services never came close to those projections. Between 2004 and 2008, the firm was credited with generating $1.13 million in sponsorships or naming-rights deals for the state, the administration confirmed.
During the same period, Team Services charged the state $820,000 for its work. The profit for the state amounts to only 0.1 percent of what Team Services predicted could be generated.
The administration let its contract with Team Services lapse in February, saying state agencies had learned how to develop partnerships with corporate sponsors.
''The first two years were really the essential years of helping us, identifying our assets and getting the program going," Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said. "Team Services was successful in helping us learn how to do that, and we no longer need their services."
But a legislative critic called the deal a flop and faulted the administration for failing to press Team Services to live up to its projections.
"The governor announced this with fanfare, drums and a cymbal clang, and this is just another incident in a pattern of no follow-through after the big splash announcement by the governor," said Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale).
Despite the less-than-spectacular return, Ottenhoff still labeled the Team Services deal a success for taxpayers.
"The point here is that it's still a net of revenue. The result is more money coming in to cover state programs and state services that's not coming out of taxpayers' dollars," she said.
The company, whose co-founder Fred Fried contributed $4,000 to the governor and was a college friend of former Blagojevich chief of staff Lon Monk, did not return a message left at its Maryland headquarters.
The group developed advertising appearances by Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich on behalf of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, and worked with Morgan Stanley and the Midwest Dairy Association for donations.