MLB, T-Mobile grow partnership for All-Star Game
With less than a week to go before the American League and National League teams meet in the 86th All-Star Game at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Major League Baseball and T-Mobile USA on Wednesday announced an expansion of their partnership that will make T-Mobile the first presenting sponsor of the jewel event.
Under the agreement, T-Mobile will have marquee stadium presence inside Great American Ball Park, on-air integrations throughout Tuesday's All-Star Game broadcast on FOX and FOX Deportes and in social media. T-Mobile will also conduct a national fan promotion connected to the Midsummer Classic, with details available soon.
"T-Mobile is an innovative partner that is always looking for new ways to reach fans and provide value for their customers," said Bob Bowman, MLB president, business and media. "The expansion of our partnership is a great example of T-Mobile's commitment to baseball, and we are looking forward to T-Mobile's creativity on display at the Midsummer Classic."
"It's All-Star Week, and we're going to go big and paint the town magenta," said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile.
T-Mobile has been deeply involved with MLB for several years now, and after sponsoring T-Mobile All-Star FanFest in 2013 and '14, it returns as title sponsor of this year's fan-focused event in Cincinnati at the Duke Energy Convention Center, from Friday to Tuesday. T-Mobile also sponsors the Reds, host of the 2015 All-Star Game, along with several other MLB teams, including the Angels, Twins, Nationals and the Seattle-based company's hometown Mariners.
Team sponsorships include player appearances, retail promotions, T-Mobile title nights at the ballpark and other fan activities. T-Mobile also has a license agreement with the MLB Players Association.
Earlier this season, T-Mobile brought back its offer to customers for free access to the premium features in the hugely popular MLB.com At Bat for the 2015 MLB season ($19.99 value). At Bat, the official app of MLB, offers premium features such as live home and away radio broadcast feeds, the MLB.TV Game of the Day and up-to-the-moment pitch tracking. Customers can download At Bat through Google Play or the Apple App Store, where it is available across all supported Android smartphones and tablets, iPhone and iPad.
The 86th All-Star Game presented by T-Mobile will be televised nationally by FOX Sports (7 p.m. ET air time, 8:15 first pitch), in Canada by Rogers Sportsnet and RDS, and worldwide by partners in more than 160 countries. ESPN Radio and ESPN Radio Deportes will provide exclusive national radio coverage of the All-Star Game. MLB Network and SiriusXM will also provide comprehensive All-Star Week coverage. For more information, please visit allstargame.com.