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ESPN cuts ties with bowl game sponsor, apparent scam company
By Dave Holcomb
Published:
ESPN announced this week that the company is cutting ties with the new sponsor for the New Mexico Bowl, DreamHouse.
“We notified DreamHouse today that we have terminated its title sponsorship agreement with the New Mexico Bowl,” ESPN spokeswoman Anna Negron wrote in an e-mail to the Albuquerque Journal on Wednesday. “We remain focused on ensuring a quality experience for fans.”
Since DreamHouse bought and received sponsorship rights to the bowl game in early October, a series of articles from multiple publications began exposing DreamHouse as fraudulent and its CEO, Eric Martinez, as a “scam artist.” According to Awful Announcing, one article from Enchantment Sports says DreamHouse hasn’t broken ground on their studio, which was supposed to open in the spring.
The Albuquerque Journal reports DreamHouse’s address and Martinez’s home address are the same in court records.
This is quite an embarrassing moment for ESPN, who now has about two months to find another sponsor for the New Mexico Bowl or let the game go sponsor-less for a second straight year. Gildan sponsored the bowl game from 2011-17, but the game returned to its original, plain “New Mexico Bowl” name last year.
The bowl has existed since 2006 and currently matches up a team from the Mountain West and Conference USA in the postseason.
Dave covers SEC football for Saturday Down South.
