NEW YORK—If Noel Biderman were to get his wish, the 2014 Super Bowl would be played in AshleyMadison.com Stadium. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem likely.
Biderman, the CEO of AshleyMadison.com, offered $25 million over five years for naming rights to the under-construction stadium currently called New Meadowlands Stadium, which will serve as the new home for the NFL’s New York Giants and New York Jets.
“When I read about the Super Bowl in New York, I wanted to do something,” Biderman told AVN. “What’s more valuable than Al Michaels mentioning your company on the air during the most watched event of the year? I thought it would be the best money I ever spent.”
The political currents surrounding the NFL and its broadcast partners have been notoriously tough to navigate. AshleyMadison.com managed to place an ad during the Super Bowl two years ago and the NFL turned it down, but NBC said yes and it wound up running on a few affiliate stations.
Biderman’s $25 million offer over five years is comparable to other similar deals recently struck. Bank of America pays $7 million a year to sponsor the Carolina Panthers stadium, and FedEx lays out $7.6 million a year on the Redskins stadium in Washington, D.C.
Biderman said in his letter to the CEO of the Meadowlands corporation, which runs the stadium for the Giants and Jets, that he’d be happy to match a superior offer.
“The nature of ads is very important,” Biderman said. “We take great care to ensure that our ads are not salacious. Any issues with our advertising are based on the nature of our business, not the content of the ad.”
While Biderman would be “shocked if this moved forward,” he’s set his sights on another corporate sponsorship—Cowboys Stadium—saying, “maybe Jerry Jones will be next.”
The discreet encounters website, intended for married people seeking affairs, has been in the news as of late since hiring Jesse James mistress Michelle “Bombshell” McGee to be a spokesperson for the site.
“We’re putting together a series of commercials with Bombshell now,” Biderman said. “It’ll run on our site and in big media markets.”
