A publicly traded mutual fund firm is no longer sponsoring any sports, including its hometown baseball team.

The Legg Mason [profile] team ended their multi-year deal with the Baltimore Orioles, the Baltimore Business Journal reports. The Baltimore-based fund firm had prominent signage at Oriole Park, but no longer. (Yesterday the Orioles played their first home game of the season.)

"It was a difficult decision, but in an era in which client expectations and needs are going up and profit margins are under pressure, we've exited sports sponsorships to focus our spend on those things that directly benefit or impact clients," Mary Athridge, a Legg Mason spokeswoman, tells the Journal.

The paper puts the sports sponsorship pullback in the context of restructuring plan that Legg Mason CEO Joe Sullivan expects will save the firm between $90 million and $110 million per year (while costing between $130 million and $150 million during the company's current fiscal year).

Legg Mason has about 3,300 employees across 39 locations, working with $727 billion in AUM as of December 31, 2018. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE