TransCanada Advertisement

NU Athletic Department pulls sponsorship agreement with TransCanada over controversial ad

By Riley Johnson Frannie Sprouls

Published: Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Updated: Thursday, September 15, 2011 00:09 The University of Nebraska Athletic Department ended its sponsorship agreement with TransCanada Wednesday, according to Athletic Director Tom Osborne.

TransCanada video advertisements and sponsorships ran in the first two Husker football home games before the athletic department made the move to pull them.

In a statement, Osborne said the advertisements brought divisiveness to a place where the athletic department wanted unity.

Political discourse has also ramped up in recent months regarding TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport tar sands oil from Canada to Texas oil refineries across Nebraska’s Sandhills and over the Ogallala Aquifer. Osborne said this decision is not about having a say either way in that political discussion.

“I want to make it clear that the athletic department has no position, either pro or con, regarding the proposed TransCanada

Pipeline,” Osborne said in a statement. “Since the contract negotiated by IMG Husker Sports Network was signed last April and approved by the athletic department, the pipeline issue has become very political.”

The ads led to boos and jeering inside Memorial Stadium, as TransCanada highlighted national championship-winnning of-

fensive lines and created a false impression for many fans and Nebraskans that the athletic department and the university had taken a position on the contentious issue.

“Whether you have the right and whether it is right are different questions,” said Jane Kleeb, a leader of BOLD Nebraska and an opponent of the pipeline.

Kleeb criticized TransCanada’s decision to sponsor Nebraska Athletics, saying she did not think it was right for the company

wrapped up in a sharp political battle to advertise at a public university. Huskers fans want to escape politics when they come to the games, not have the issue shoved back in their faces, Kleeb said.

Jeff Rauh, a spokesman for TransCanada, told the Daily Nebraskan the ad had been a tribute to Husker football and when the settlement comes, they will look to give back.

“We’ll take the funds earmarked for the university to assist elsewhere in the state of Nebraska,” he said.

UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman said, given the controversy surrounding the pipeline, it might have appeared that the athletic department or university had taken a stance on the Keystone XL pipeline. But Perlman said that is not the case. He said the university has not taken a position either way and that IMG secured the advertisements, not the university.

“The ads themselves really focus on the offensive line and not the controversial pipeline, but I can also understand why some people reacted negatively,” Perlman said. University of Nebraska Regent Bob Whitehouse said he didn’t notice TransCanada’s ads while at the games. But Whitehouse said there is a difference between advertisement and endorsement, and the notion that one means the other would set a bad precedent.

“I would not want to think that every time we advertise something we imply endorsement,” he said.

Meg Brannen, a junior advertising and public relations major, said she wasn’t proud to be a Husker after seeing the TransCanada ads at the past two football games. For Brannen, the ads might have indirectly sent the wrong message to fans and the state.

“It was really poor planning on whoever placed the ad because I think anyone could have seen this is really controversial,” Brannen said.

Casey Heier, a senior biological systems engineering major, said he was glad the athletic department listened to the fans who spoke out against the TransCanada ads.

Initially, Heier said he was surprised when the ads appeared on the HuskerVision screen the first two football games.

“I can’t believe they put it up there,” Heier said.

Kyle Bogus, a senior accounting major, said he didn’t think much of the ads, but agreed with the athletic department’s decision to remove them.

“It’s probably the right thing to do,” Bogus said. “I don’t want people booing during the game for something on the big screen.”

rileyjohnson@dailynebraskan.com

http://www.dailynebraskan.com/news/nu-athletic-department-pulls-sponsorship-agreement-with-transcanada-over-controversial-ad-1.2628279