Anheuser-Busch Sale Could Prove Costly to American Sports Leagues, Networks

The Belgian brewer InBev is attempting to complete a $46 billion purchase of Anheuser-Busch, and if the deal goes through, you can bet that American sports leagues and the networks that televise their games will not be happy about it.

The Business of Sports Illuminated has a great post about the ramifications of such a deal to the sports world, and suffice to say that Anheuser-Busch, which spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on advertising related to sports, is unlikely to keep spending that kind of money if InBev buys it. From the post:

InBev has a very different philosophy about marketing, one which should make owners of professional sports franchises and athletic directors of U.S. colleges and universities quickly start campaigns to keep A-B an independent company. InBev's philosophy is to use those dollars to market based on price. It does not believe in spending ad dollars in a way that drowns out your competitor. As a result, it is not a major sports sponsor nor is its advertising budget more than a fraction of that spent by A-B.

Although none of the sports leagues have said anything publicly about this deal, you can bet that behind the scenes, they're nervous about losing one of their biggest cash cows.