BankofAmerica Spends 10 Mill on Superbowl Parties

Bank of America, who I bank with and who has received 45 Billion Dollars from the TARP program and FED.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6782719&page=1

Spent 10 Million Dollars on Superbowl Sponsorships and Festivities.
-800k on the tents that were used to host one of the parties.
-They did sell tickets to one of the events for 12.50 to 18.50 and the money went to local youth programs.

Without considering politics, how many people are ok with this?

 

My off the cuff impresssion is that you have to let businesses run their business.

 

Thats a fair observation, but if you are going to cut jobs, you have to target every part of the budget and this should have been looked at before they spent 10 mill.

 

I didn't dig into the story but I suspect there may have been previously executed contractual obligations involved, but the old adage of "you've got to spend money to make money" still applies today.

 

business that get bailout money need to be tightening their spending on things that arent necessities. if they want to make a donation to a charity, thats one thing. but i would guess they spent far more than what they raised. and, imo, the raising money for charity was just a cover for having a party.

more reason that bailout money should have gone to homeowners to refinance and keep their homes. the banks still would have gotten their money, it just would have actually helped someone first.

my off the cuff impression is f' em.

 

I'm all about taking customers to games and such to gain loyalty and all but I think this is over the top. I can't imagine 10 mil on Superbowl parties drawing enough extra business to pay for itself.

Especially given the current economic climate, it just sends a message of irresponsibility and apathy, in my opinion.

 

I believe that as well, they are probably signing new contracts for the next superbowl right now.

 

You have to spend part of your budget on entertainment. Its the way corporate business is done. If not, some other bank comes in and wines and dines your clients away and then what? 10 Mil seems like a lot but how much money did the clients they entertain make for them last year? I would suspect much more. If it was an employee party I could see some outrage but it wasnt.

On the other hand, we canceled our annual super bowl party for institutional clients this year. We didnt see it as prudent spending and it could have compromised our clients themselves with their employers.