Bud Light Will Replace Coors as NFL's Official Beer Sponsor in 2011

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s Bud Light brand will replace Coors as the National Football League’s official beer sponsor.

The agreement with Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch, which was an NFL sponsor from 1988-2001 before Coors took over, will begin in 2011. Contract terms weren’t disclosed. The six-year accord is worth more than $1 billion, the Associated Press reported.

“We look forward to welcoming Anheuser-Busch and the Bud Light brand back to the NFL,” Steve Bornstein, the NFL’s executive vice president for media, said in a joint news release announcing the agreement. “We have appreciated their vast support of our clubs and network partners over the years and we are pleased they will join our stable of sponsors.”

MillerCoors, the U.S. brewing joint venture of SABMiller Plc and Molson Coors Brewing Co., will remain an NFL sponsor for the 2010 season, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said in an e-mail.

Anheuser-Busch will pay twice as much as Coors, AP said, citing an unidentified person familiar with the negotiations.

The agreement allows Anheuser-Busch to use NFL logos and trademarks in its advertising and marketing.

“We continue to invest in the things that support our brands and our efforts to manage costs enable us to seize opportunities like this one,” said Dave Peacock, president of Anheuser-Busch, Inc.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mason Levinson in New York at mlevinson@bloomberg.net.