(WisBusiness) WED News Summary — 4 Feb. 2009

From WisBusiness.com …

— Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said corporate sponsors have been keeping their commitments to teams despite the nation’s economic downturn.

“So far we’ve been very fortunate on that score,” Selig told a group at Marquette University as part of the “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” series.

Selig made his comments Tuesday in response to a question about a Wall Street Journal report that Citigroup was considering dropping its $400 million, 20-year naming rights deal for the New York Mets’ new stadium because it has received government bailout money. The Mets and Citigroup both said the deal is still on.

Selig noted that he spoke with Mets owner Fred Wilpon regarding the report, but didn’t provide details.

But Selig noted that the economic downturn may have ramifications for baseball — an industry he once considered recession-proof as it has done well during other significant downturns.

“I think this is the most serious downturn since the Great Depression,” Selig said. “So this is different.”

He noted that during the playoffs he cautioned teams on raising ticket prices, and said that about eight have cut prices, 15 or 16 have kept them the same and those that raised them did so “very judiciously.”

“I think the clubs are watching themselves,” Selig said.

See more from Selig’s talk: http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=147889

Listen to audio of Selig’s appearance: http://law.marquette.edu/jw/webcasts

— A leader of one of Wisconsin’s top banks said she wouldn’t call the current economic and financial situation a “crisis,” but she admits the country is in extraordinary times.

“We are at a historic level of financial disruption and an unprecedented level of policy response,” said Lisa Binder, president and chief operating officer for Associated Banc-Corp.

Binder discussed the federal government’s involvement in the banking system during a Milwaukee Rotary Club luncheon Tuesday. Binder, who has been with Associated Banc-Corp since 2007, focused part of her talk on describing the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Purchase Program, which her bank used to sell $525 million of senior preferred shares and related common stock warrants to the government.

“The idea of the CPP was to build capital to increase the flow of financing to businesses and consumers,” Binder said. She said that banks had been trying to preserve their capital ratios by reducing lending.

The CPP program was not a bailout, she said, but an investment for the government and a way to provide greater liquidity and encourage banks to lend.

See more: http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=147890

— Against the backdrop of a looming state budget deficit, participants at a daylong conference on solutions wavered between hope that a federal stimulus package will stave off the worst of the crisis and a sense of resignation that major changes are needed to resolve Wisconsin’s long-term fiscal challenges.

“For years, we’ve had a structural deficit in Wisconsin,’’ said Adam Payne, president of the Wisconsin County Executives and Administrators Association. Meanwhile, the state’s overall economic performance has lagged the rest of the nation and its balance sheet has weakened, with the state’s unrestricted net assets falling to a negative $8.2 billion.

“That’s unacceptable.’’ Payne said. “That’s embarrassing. We’ve got to change our approach and our culture.’’

Where to start? Some 150 participants at conference organized by the Wisconsin Way project addressed ideas centered on economic development, tax reform and government management and spending.

Read a new column from Jennifer Sereno on the ideas discussed at the conference: http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Content=205

— Troy Runge, research director at Kimberly-Clark Corp., has been named director of the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative, a public-private partnership in bioenergy research, outreach, training and economic development based in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Runge’s position is supported by a gift from the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation.

See details: http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=147912

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