BONHAM AND HINCHEY: Corporate suites at sports events serve a purpose : Columns & Blogs : The Rocky Mountain News

BONHAM AND HINCHEY: Corporate suites at sports events serve a purpose : Columns & Blogs : The Rocky Mountain News:

"For many people, attending sports events is a way to flee the office. For others, it's a way to profitably extend their business activities, as is the case with corporate hospitality suites at virtually every sports facility and marquee event.

Corporate suite accommodations have risen to a level of extraordinary lavishness. To outside observers, they may seem like tailgating on steroids. They can range from $30,000 annually for rather modest accommodations to more than $180,000 a year.

According to sports marketing expert Phil Schaaf, author of Sports Inc.: 100 Years of Sports Business and Sports Marketing: It's Not Just a Game Anymore, it wasn't always this way.

'In the early days,' Schaaf said, 'sports marketing meant nothing more than selling tickets and some billboard space inside the stadium. But as the 'skybox,' or luxury suite, became an endogenous part of facilities (the first ones were at the Astrodome, which opened in 1965), corporate hospitality and sponsorships evolved organically . . . though it took until the mid-1980s for it to become a full-fledged industry, the key event being the 1984 'Ueberroth Olympics' in Los Angeles."