Fifth Third Bank has agreed to sponsor Kennesaw State University’s football program and fund improvements to the KSU Stadium and other athletics programs and facilities.

The bank said the sponsorship reflects its plans to grow in the metro and state.

Fifth Third Bank will become the “Official Bank of Kennesaw State Athletics” and will be granted naming rights to KSU Stadium.

The Cincinnati-based bank also will get sponsorship recognition at the KSU Convocation Center, generic Bailey Field and Stillwell Stadium, doctor advertising in game programs, anesthetist television and radio broadcasts and on KSUOwls.com. http://ksuowls.com/index.aspx

“Our sponsorship agreement with Fifth Third Bank will have a significant impact on not only the athletics department, but the entire Kennesaw State University family – our students, faculty, staff, alumni and fans,” KSU Director of Athletics Vaughn Williams said in a statement. “Fifth Third’s gift provides substantial support for starting a football program and will help transform the culture at Kennesaw State.”

Fifth Third Bank entered the Georgia market in 2008 with the acquisition of First Horizon Bank. It has 31 branches in Georgia, including 25 in metro Atlanta. Its metro Atlanta deposits total $712.4 million as of June 2012, making it the No. 18 bank here, according to FDIC’s annual deposit market share report.

The $122 billion asset bank has a total of 1,325 branches in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Georgia and North Carolina.

Kennesaw State University is the third-largest university in Georgia, offering 80 graduate and undergraduate degrees, including doctorates in education, business, nursing, and international conflict management.

Bridgestone have re-entered Australia’s V8 Supercars Championship with a new partnership with Nissan Motorsport.

One of the most famous names in motorsport is back in Australia’s V8 Supercars Championship with Bridgestone confirming a new partnership with Nissan Motorsport.

The new sponsorship will see Bridgestone branding on the Jack Daniel’s Racing Nissan Altima’s of Todd and Rick Kelly from round one of the 2013 series in Adelaide.

The Clipsal 500 marks the return of Nissan to Australia’s premier motorsport category after a 20-year hiatus, with Mercedes-Benz also joining the expanded series.

“It is great to once again be represented in V8 Supercars, particularly with Todd and Rick Kelly who are drivers with the proven ability to win races and championships, and with Nissan who also have race-winning pedigree,” said Stanley Toh, General Manager – Marketing of Bridgestone Australia Ltd.

“We believe they’re a good fit for the Bridgestone brand and for the products that we bring to the Australian market through our network of retail outlets.

“We’re very excited to be involved and we’re looking forward to seeing the cars on the grid in Adelaide.”

Nissan Motorsport CEO John Crennan welcomed Bridgestone as “an important business partner”.

“I have enjoyed an excellent association over a long period of time with Bridgestone and to renew this relationship is a big win for our Nissan Team,” he said.

“Bridgestone is an outstanding company to work with, not only in terms of their deep understanding of motor sport on a global scale but also in terms of the creativity they bring to a partnership.”

The 2013 V8 Supercars Championship starts in Adelaide at the Clipsal 500 from February 28 to March 3.

Bulgarian operator Mtel has signed on as the sponsor of the Bulgarian Tennis Federation for the sixth consecutive year. 

The cooperation between the telecom operator and the federation dates back to 2008. Since then, the company and the federation held a variety of events and initiatives to promote tennis in the country. 

The sponsorship of the tennis federation is part of the long-term and consistent policy of the operator to back sport in the country. Besides the Tennis federation, Mtel is also a sponsor of the National football team, FC ‘Levski’, basketball club ‘Lukoil Akadenika’, and the beach volleyball tournament Mtel Beach Masters, among others.

Butterfly have announced the sponsorship of Jishan Liang, therapy the 2012 Pacific Sports Exchange Open Champion, unhealthy of Bellevue, Washington.

Butterfly will provide table tennis equipment to the athlete. In addition to being the 2012 Pacific Sports Exchange Open Champion, Jishan Liang was an Open Doubles Runner-up at the 2012 LA Table Tennis Open. Jishan is a coach at the Seattle Pacific Table Tennis Club, a 4,000 square foot facility that includes 8 Butterfly Centrefold tables, an 18-foot ceiling, ITTF approved Gerflor flooring, and a friendly, professional environment in Bellevue, WA.

Butterfly is the world leader in table tennis / ping pong equipment and gear. Butterfly will be the official table sponsor for the 2014 & 2016 World Table Tennis Championships as well as the official ball sponsor for the 2013 & 2015 World Championships. Butterfly is also the official equipment sponsor of NCTTA’s 2012-2013 regular season as well as the 2013 College Table Tennis National Championships in Rockford, Illinois.

USA Track & Field officials unveiled a new event and a new sponsorship partner that they hope will add excitement and visibility to the sport of road running in the United States.

Called the US National Championship, treat the 12K race, pills to be run in the fall of this year, is a three-year sponsorship agreement between USATF and Neustar, the northern Virginia-based administrator of the US internet domain name. The race will be the culminating event of the year-long USA Running Circuit (USARC), a series of races that dole out nearly $1 million in prize money to American runners.

That figure will increase substantially with the addition of the US National Championship; the purse will total $100,000, with $20,000 each going to the male and female winners. The 12K race, whose exact date and location will be announced sometime in March after details are finalized, will bring together the top American road racers at a middle ground between 5K and the marathon, and will be preceded by an open 5K citizen race.

“I think it’s really exciting to American distance runners to have something like this,” said Deena Kastor, who flew across the country just for the day to participate in the press conference. “I think it’s going to create tremendous interest and participation.”

To induce the top runners to compete, it is likely the US National Championship, USATF’s first wholly owned-and-operated road race, will offer more heavily weighted points, perhaps double or triple, toward the final USARC standings, according to Jim Estes, USATF’s director of events. “The main thing is to get this off the ground and running,” he said. “We can tweak and fine tune it later if we need to.”

The exact date of the race is something that will be carefully worked out. “We don’t want to conflict with or detract from other U.S. championships,” said Max Siegel, USATF’s CEO. “We’re hoping that having a culminating event will develop continuity and actually increase interest in the series as a whole, and therefore in the individual series races as well.” Siegel knows a thing or two about building interest in an annual series; he was a partner in one of the most successful teams in NASCAR racing, a sport that has defined success in building fan and media interest over the course of an extended season.

Neustar’s sponsorship of the race marks the largest single-event deal for USATF in more than a decade, and is part of Siegel’s goal of increasing sponsorship, brand awareness and growing USATF’s membership. Alex Berry, senior VP of Enterprise Services at Neustar, said he hopes that growing membership will use his company to serve their individual and group online needs. “With this partnership, we envision all national enthusiasts, such as USATF members, running clubs, elite athletes, and the running community having their own .US website. Runners can track and share their training routines, race times, upcoming races, network and more with .US—America’s top level domain.”

Berry, a recreational runner himself, joked that the 12K distance was chosen “because that’s the farthest I can run.” But he added that the fitness and family focus of the sport of road racing is what attracted Nuestar in becoming a sponsor. “The fact that the fans are also participants is something unique,” he said.

AMA Pro Racing and Cortech have reached an agreement expanding their existing partnership for the 2013 season, naming Cortech as the presenting sponsor of AMA Pro Racing’s Live Timing and Scoring for both GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing and AMA Pro Flat Track.

The Cortech “Performance Edge” year-end award program will once again be named after the industry-leading motorcycle gear company.

The “Performance Edge” rider award was created in 2011 to recognize the rider who turned the highest number of overall fast lap times in National Guard SuperBike races. Josh Hayes won the initial award in 2011, then backed that up with a phenomenal 2012 season that included ten races where he recorded the fastest lap time. The Mississippian put together a 16-win season, landed on the podium on 18 separate occasions. Hayes was declared the winner of the year-end award for the second consecutive year and will be looking to three-peat in 2013.

Through the partnership, Cortech will have access to exclusive in-market and promotional rights to the GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing and AMA Pro Flat Track series marks in addition to on-site activation space within the paddock at every event held this upcoming season. AMA Pro Racing and Cortech will be working hard throughout the season to create ways to expand their collective marketing reach and engage new fans.

NHRA Drag racing champion Jay Payne has agreed a contract extension from longtime sponsor FireIce.

The deal keeps the FireIce brand on Payne’s Peak Motor Oil Top Alcohol Funny Car as a major associate and continues the title sponsorship of Payne’s FireIce Pro Mod car through 2015.

“Jay’s our guy,” said Michael Cordani, CEO of GelTech Solutions, the parent company of FireIce. “Since Jay got the deal with Peak for his Funny Car we’ve been approached by several other teams about helping them but the reality is we never left Jay. We just gave up the primary position so Jay could be better funded. We’ve still been on his Funny Car, and of course the Pro Mod car too, and we’re staying with Jay moving forward.”

Payne’s relationship with FireIce began midway through the 2008 season when a title sponsorship was unveiled on his Top Alcohol Funny Car at the Kansas race. They later added the Pro Mod car when Payne decided to contest both classes.

FireIce is a patent-pending fire suppressant used for direct attack of fires as well as a medium-term retardant for structure protection. FireIce, a GelTech Solutions product, can be used in all types of apparatus such as fire extinguishers, pumper trucks and aerial units for wildfires, as well as home defense units for personal home protection.

“We’re thrilled to know that FireIce will be with us for many more years,” Payne said. “The best way I know how to say thank you is to go out there and win Pomona this weekend, so that’s what we’re going to try and do.”

Richard Childress Racing and AdvancePierre Foods have reached agreement on a partnership program that will see multiple brands from the Cincinnati-based company serving as primary sponsors of multiple race teams in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

Advance Pierre’s Fast Fixin’ brand will be the primary sponsor for Brian Scott and the No. 2 Chevrolet Camaro team for two races (July 21 at Chicagoland Speedway and Oct. 5 at Kansas Speedway) and one with Kevin Harvick and the No. 33 team (Oct. 11 at Charlotte Motor Speedway). Steak-EZE will sponsor Harvick and the No. 33 Chevrolet Camaro team Sept. 28 at Dover International Speedway.

“We are excited and proud to partner with Richard Childress Racing for another year. The RCR team matches everything that Fast Fixin’ and Steak-EZE stand for…quality, pride, fun and family. We wish Kevin Harvick and Brian Scott great luck this season,” stated Trey Taylor, vice president of marketing, brands division for AdvancePierre Foods.

AdvancePierre Foods is a leading supplier of family favorite foods like chicken nuggets, Philly cheese steaks, hamburgers, chicken fried steak and sandwiches to major grocery retailers as well as to foodservice, school, vending and convenience store channels. 

“RCR is proud that we can announce our partnership with AdvancePierre Foods,” said Richard Childress, chief executive officer of Richard Childress Racing. “The addition of Brian Scott to the No. 2 team and the already established program of Kevin Harvick and the No. 33 creates a strong program for both the Fast Fixin’ and Steak-EZE brands. We appreciate their confidence in our racing program and look forward to doing all we can for them to realize the best return on their investment with us.”