The National Basketball Association is trading Coke for Pepsi.
The league said Monday that it's struck a new marketing partnership with Pepsico, ending a 28-year partnership with Coca-Cola.
Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi said during a press conference in New York that the company will bring the power of its portfolio of 22 brands to the NBA. The Purchase, New York-based company's brands include Pepsi, Tropicana, Lay's, Lipton and Doritos.
Nooyi pointed out that Pepsico Inc. had an existing relationship with the NBA through Gatorade, which has been a partner with the league for more than 30 years. The executive said that Mountain Dew will lead the NBA's marketing strategy.
The partnership will cover North America and China, where the popularity of the NBA is growing.
The Coca-Cola Co. said in a statement on Monday that it "will continue to have a strong presence within basketball culture through our relationships with iconic players." The world's biggest beverage maker also said that it will continue to have relationships with individual teams and venues, which means some arenas will still serve Coke products.
Separately, Coca-Cola announced Monday that it signed a multiyear partnership with the U.S. Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer. The deal also includes a renewal of Coca-Cola's partnership with the Mexican National Team's U.S. Tour.
Coca-Cola will serve as the official beverage partner across the non-alcoholic beverage category for U.S. Soccer and the Mexican National Team's U.S. Tour. The exclusive association with MLS will include both soda and water brands.
Coca-Cola, which also makes Sprite, Powerade and Vitaminwater, said in October that it planned to cut costs by $3 billion a year through a variety of measures, such as restructuring its global supply chain. The Atlanta-based company said much of the savings would be reinvested into marketing.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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