The White Sox continued a busy offseason of expanding beer choices at the ballpark Tuesday by announcing marketing deals with four more breweries: Goose Island Beer Co., Pabst Brewing, Bell’s Brewery and Founders Brewing.
Still missing from the team’s corporate sponsorship portfolio is a large domestic beer company. Earlier this month, the White Sox ended a 30-year marketing deal with Miller Brewing and also announced a new three-year, seven-figure deal with Modelo Especial, the fast-growing Mexican import.
Miller products will still be served at Guaranteed Rate Field, but won’t be marketed with signs and promotions.
Nationally, craft beer and Mexican imports have surged in recent years as domestic mainstream beers have declined in sales. But the White Sox could still add a large domestic beer partner, said Brooks Boyer, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the White Sox.
“We have that flexibility. We could add a Miller. We could add a Bud. … The door is not closed,” Boyer said.
For now, though, the White Sox are hoping to entice fans and boost attendance with a greater variety of beer options at the ballpark, Boyer said. Bell’s and Founders are Michigan-based craft breweries with strong fan bases in the Chicago market. Craft pioneer Goose Island, now owned by Anheuser Busch InBev, is still based here.
And lovers of Old Style and Pabst Blue Ribbon now will have that option at the ballpark, said Boyer, who declined to disclose the terms of the four deals.
Boyer wouldn’t say whether the five deals combined — including Modelo — approached the revenue lost from ending the Miller deal. But collectively, the new beer options will enhance the experience at the ballpark, he said.
There also will be a new Craft Kave in right field, replacing the Miller Lite Bullpen Sports Bar, where more than 75 craft beers will be offered.
“We’re looking at it a little bit differently. A lot of teams have the strategy of less is more. We’re taking the strategy that more is more,” Boyer said.
Goose Island President Ken Stout, a Beverly native and lifelong Sox fan, said he was thrilled to expand the company’s presence on the South Side with the one-year deal. Though some Goose Island beer previously was served at Guaranteed Rate, the brewery had a significantly higher profile at the United Center and Wrigley Field, Stout said.
“(The White Sox) are really looking to expand beer options at the ballpark and we’re tickled pink to be a part of it,” Stout said.
Such marketing deals are negotiated separately from contracts covering food and beverages sold in the park, but the products from the four breweries will be available at the park throughout the season at permanent kiosks on the concourse, Boyer said.
Each of the four breweries also will be featured in a “brewer of the homestand” during the season, he said.
The deal is also good news for Lakeshore Beverage, the wholesaler that distributes products for all four breweries in Chicago. As the Chicago-area distributor of Anheuser Busch InBev, Lakeshore does considerably more business at Wrigley Field, where Budweiser is the official beer.
Lakeshore Beverage has about 700 employees in the Chicago area, many of them Sox fans, said J.R. Hand, CEO of Hand Family Cos., the Tennessee-based parent company of Lakeshore Beverage.
“It’s nice to have offerings with both teams,” he said.
As for the possibility of the Sox eventually striking a marketing deal with Budweiser, Hand said: “That’s something we would be extremely interested in.”
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