Dean Bonham's balancing act.

• Author: Schley, Stewart
• Position: The Bonham Group

A FEW YEARS AGO AT THE DENVER ATHLETIC CLUB, DEAN Bonham challenged the world record for the most push-ups performed in a minute. He managed 120 before his 60 seconds were up. The secret?

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"You just have to pop them out," says the spry 55-year-old.

Reducing difficult tasks to their essential qualities is a knack Bonham has brought to the worldwide sports industry as one of the most prolific business advisers in the game.

After 18 years of helping team owners and corporate sponsors figure out how to do business together, he says the secret to making things happen is the embrace of a fundamental principle. "Philosophically, everything we do is based on a balanced value proposition," says Bonham, whose company, The Bonham Group, operates from an office in Greenwood Village. "You should sell based on the value of your property, and you should buy based on the value of benefits you get in relation to that property."

Adhering to that philosophy has helped Bonham achieve unusual notoriety in the modern sports industry, where he is an often-quoted, much-traveled marketing adviser to professional team owners, league executives and corporate sponsors angling to attach their name to the game. His current assignments range from helping the Ladies Professional Golf Association elevate its profile, to advising the Colorado Rapids on what naming rights for a new soccer stadium ought to be worth.

In August of 2005, Bonham brokered a naming-rights deal for Anschutz Entertainment Group's London arena that netted an industry-record $11 million a year from mobile phone company 02. That agreement followed similar Bonham-negotiated deals for Seattle's Qwest Field, Ameriquest Field in Arlington, Texas, Petco Park in San Diego and a handful of others. Bonham says his company has been involved in about 50 facility naming deals, and he has personally negotiated nine naming agreements.

"He's one of the best in the business at evaluation and presentation," says Paul Andrews, executive vice president of Kroenke Sports Enterprises in Denver, which is working with Bonham's firm on a Colorado Rapids naming-rights deal.

Crafting agreements between sponsors and stadium owners involves dozens of factors, such as how sponsors' products might be integrated into the stadium's operations, and what levels of ancillary exposure are made available through game broadcasts and community-relations events. Bonham tries to keep his eye on the ball by taking a...