North America Sports Media Acquires Dodds Athletic Tours to Expand Premiere College Sports Division
Acquisition Creates Largest Collegiate Travel and Hospitality Company in North America
Chicago, Illinois (April 3, 2008) - North America Sports Media Inc. (NASM) today announced the acquisition of Dodds Athletic Tours, the leading full service official collegiate sports tour company in the United States. This is the third acquisition in the past three years for NASM, a sports marketing company created by private equity firm Pfingsten Partners, L.L.C, and sports marketing veteran Christopher J. Brennan in 2005.
Dodds Athletic Tours (Dodds), www.doddsathletictours.com specializes in developing, marketing, and activating official university sports tours for over 40 leading schools from the Big 10, Big 12, ACC, SEC, PAC 10, Big East, and other major conferences. Schools represented by Dodds include: University of Wisconsin, The Ohio State University, University of Illinois, University of Tennessee, University of Kansas, University of Texas, Boston College, Florida State and many others. Since 1963, Dodds has excelled in providing travel and hospitality for the biggest events in college sports; BCS National Championship, Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and the Final Four.
Under terms of the agreement, owners Christy and Ken Bruce will remain President and Executive Vice President, respectively, of Dodds and also will retain an equity ownership in NASM. "Christy and Ken have done an outstanding job in establishing Dodds as the number one choice in quality and service for collegiate sports travel. NASM is excited to have them join our team as we continue to build our college sports group", said Brennan.
The acquisition of Dodds is a perfect compliment to NASM’s college division, Premiere College Sports (www.collegesportstravel.com) and expands their official university lineup while strategically aligning NASM’s other core businesses that include; Premiere Sports Travel (www.sportstravel.com) one of the largest retail sports travel providers in the United States; TSE Sports & Entertainment (www.tseworld.com) a full service sports marketing company and industry leader in worldwide corporate hospitality; and Gotickets.com (www.gotickets.com) a leading secondary ticket provider of hard-to-get tickets to concerts, sporting events and theater. The Dodds acquisition further extends NASM’s sales, services and product offerings into the highly sought after college sports market and will provide colleges and universities access to a variety of worldwide sports experiences for key donors, sponsors, alumni and fans.
"The significant increase in college sports tours, coupled with our procurement and activation experience makes Dodds a perfect strategic fit. This acquisition is another step in accelerating our strategy to build a broad based sports marketing, hospitality and promotional platform with tremendous reach into the corporate, retail and collegiate consumer channels", commented Brennan.
"After 45 years in the collegiate travel industry, we are excited to join such an experienced and cutting-edge team", said Christy and Ken Bruce of Dodds. "With the broad range of resources now available to Dodds, we look forward to expanding our overall product offering to the marketplace".
About North America Sports Media
North America Sports Media (www.nasminc.com) is a holding company formed by private equity firm Pfingsten Partners, L.L.C. and sports marketer Christopher J. Brennan to build an integrated sports marketing platform. NASM divisions include New York-based TSE Sports & Entertainment (www.tseworld.com) a full-service sports marketing company that provides customized incentive and brand-building programs for Fortune 1000 clients; North Carolina-based Premiere Sports Travel (www.sportstravel.com), a leading sports travel and hospitality company that sells direct to consumers; Gotickets.com (www.gotickets.com), an online secondary ticket company that specializes in sporting and entertainment events; and Premiere Sports Alliances, a sports marketing company specializing in event management services, licensing, sponsorship and promotion.
About Premiere College Sports
Premiere College Sports is a division of North America Sports Media and is a dedicated, full-service college sports travel and hospitality company exclusively focused on "Official" collegiate, conference and bowl partnerships. Premiere College Sports utilizes its travel, hospitality, collegiate athletic, sports marketing and sales experience to execute custom collegiate sports travel and hospitality programs for their partners. They are committed to provide fans the finest packages to the best sporting events, with the highest level of service. To learn more about Premiere College Sports, log onto www.collegesportstravel.com or call 800-924-9993.
About Pfingsten Partners
Pfingsten Partners is an operationally oriented private equity firm founded in 1989. From its headquarters in Chicago, IL and office in Hong Kong, China, the firm builds better businesses through operational improvements, professional management practices, global capabilities and profitable business growth rather than financial engineering. Since completing its first investment in 1991, Pfingsten Partners has acquired 59 manufacturing, distribution and specialty media companies. For more information, visit www.pfingstenpartners.com.
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