NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
There's plenty of reasons why American Airlines nearly filed for bankruptcy protection four times during the last month -- union outrage, management greed, industry economics, and the specter of war and terrorism.
But there's one suspect that hasn't gotten enough attention among the millions of words written on American's woes, and it can be found in six simple words written on the side of buildings in Miami and Dallas -- "American Airlines Arena" and "American Airlines Center."
As readers of this column know, the stadium sponsor curse has been a powerful force in the worlds of business and sports the last couple of years.
A total of 10 companies that have paid to sponsor major North American sports stadiums and arenas have filed for bankruptcy protection since the start of 2001. That's out of about 65 companies with publicly-traded U.S. stocks that have sponsored major venues during that time.
Even with American Airline parent AMR Corp.'s escape from bankruptcy -- for now -- don't assume the curse does not still exist. The day after American's first brush with bankruptcy four weeks ago, Air Canada, which has its name on the Toronto basketball and hockey arena, filed for bankruptcy.
Through Thursday's close of trading, the Stadium Sponsor Stock Index, which is now down to 52 stocks, has seen its market weighted average fall 2 percent. That's compared with a 2 percent gain in the value of the Standard & Poor's 500 during the same period.
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I'm not suggesting that American Airlines can't afford the relatively modest costs of sponsoring two facilities.
According to Sports Business Daily, which tracks such deals, it is paying $195 million for 30 years of naming rights for the new American Airlines Center in Dallas and only $42 million for 20 years of naming rights on Miami's American Airlines Arena. That means the annual costs of the deals represent only about 18 hours of operating losses for the world's largest airline, based on its first-quarter results.
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But perhaps the problem is that executives who have the kind of edifice complex that leads to such naming rights deals have blind spots when it comes to running an efficient and profitable corporation. It's tough to picture Southwest Airlines, the only money-making airline among the nation's 10 largest, having its name on an arena. Four of the five airlines that are larger than Southwest do, though.
American's latest dance with bankruptcy came because now-departed CEO Don Carty made what he admits was the naive assumption that unions wouldn't mind lucrative executive compensation packages at the same time they were being asked to accept major pay cuts.
The arena names didn't factor into the union outcry, but they didn't do anything to convince rank-and-file union members that the company is trying to save every dollar when asking them to tighten their belts, either.
American Airlines is one of a handful of companies with the hubris to actually have its name on two different facilities -- the basketball arena in Miami and the new basketball and hockey arena in Dallas, near its Fort Worth, Texas, home base. Only FedEx -- which has the Washington, D.C.-area football stadium and will soon have the basketball arena in its hometown of Memphis, Tenn., named after it -- also has the same name on two different venues.
Most of the other companies with multiple facilities are hyping different brand names -- PepsiCo has Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Pepsi Center in Denver, for example.
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Even with the eleventh-hour labor agreement that saved American from the precipice of bankruptcy Friday, company executives admit the airline's financial outlook is difficult at best. Maybe the next cost-saving move should be to start negotiations with the two arenas to see if some other short-sighted company long on ego would like to step up to the naming rights.
At least the airline could be free of the curse. With all its other problems, American just doesn't need that kind of bad luck right now.
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