Mattress Sponsorship SmackDown

Getting out of partnerships when you get a better offer from a competitor is always a thorny issue. Just ask FIFA. On an infinitely smaller scale, two mattress companies are going head-to-head in a fight for the exclusive mattress of this year's Fort Worth Stock Show.

It seems Fort Worth-based City Mattress, a partner of the Fort Worth Stock Show for 10 years, was recently told that Houston-based Mattress Firm would be paying (what we can only assume is a considerable sum more) to own both the mattresses and futon bedding categories at this year's event.

No harm in taking a better offer, right. The catch? City Mattress said it had already been sent and had already accepted an invitation to participate in 2012 at the same level it had for the past 10 consecutive years. And as we learned with the NHL's legal dispute with Labatt, timing your offer right can be just as important as the content of the offer itself.

Adding insult to injury, The Stock Show then offered City Mattress the comforter category instead.

"We don't sell comforters," Jack Gerrick, founder of City Mattress said. "They can't compete with us, that's what it boils down to."

Sounds like a classic ambush opp when their mattress counterparts from the south hit town..

Hat tip to The Marketing Arm's Bill Glenn for bringing this to our attention.

#newstag