(Updated 1 a.m. Oct 26)
Featured photo: Jeff Siembieda, executive director of the New Mexico Bowl, is pictured at the announcement of DreamHouse as the game’s sponsor on Oct. 1. The game dropped the sponsorship on Thursday, but alleged scam artist Eric Martinez is still planning on creating his company.
PART 7 OF A SERIES: Enchantment Sports continues its investigative series on Eric Martinez, CEO of DreamHouse and the former title sponsor of the DreamHouse New Mexico Bowl. Martinez is a shameless self-promoter who bills himself as one of the top actors, entertainers, directors, activists and richest people in New Mexico. Countless others allege he is the top con-artist in New Mexico, and the ESPN Events-owned bowl game was his latest pigeon.
Copyright Enchantment Sports/Tick Talk Media Productions, LLC
By Mark Smith
Enchantment Sports
Editor in Chief
While the dream has officially ended for Martinez as far as the New Mexico Bowl, it still is apparently alive for his company.
At least as of today.
On Oct. 5, in a short background interview with Enchantment Sports, Martinez said he would be breaking ground on his future DreamHouse Production studio in November in the Aperture Center at Mesa del Sol.
On Friday, Aperture Center owner Steve Chavez said Martinez still is planning on making DreamHouse a reality.
“I spoke to (Martinez) yesterday,” Chavez told Enchantment Sports. “From my conversation with him, he said he is still going forward.”
Chavez said Martinez has put down a deposit, but he wouldn’t say for how much or when another payment is due.
Here is the link to DreamHouse’s website about the building.
Meanwhile, questions still remain unanswered as to how much Martinez promised the New Mexico Bowl to make DreamHouse the title sponsor for ESPN Events-owned game?
Did Martinez ever make a payment?
If so, for how much and was the money returned?
Those are some of the numerous questions that the game’s executive director, Jeff Siembieda, and ESPN refuse to answer.
On Friday, the only response ESPN senior publicist Anna Negron gave us was “We do not disclose financial information.”
In exclusive information obtained by Enchantment Sports, we know what the New Mexico Bowl proposed to one Albuquerque restaurant in 2010 for naming rights.
The proposal came before Gildan became the bowl game’s first title sponsor in June of 2011.
The company that received the proposal did want to be named.
The proposal asked the company to put up $325,000 in 2010 and 2011 and $350,000 in 2012 and 2013.
A spokesman for the company said he thinks there might have been one meeting to discuss the proposal, but it was “never really considered. We don’t do sponsorships at that level.
“… From what we later saw, Gildan paid around the same its sponsorship; somewhere around $400,00 a year, from what I recall.”
Here is most of the 2010 proposal.
Gildan ended its seven-year relationship with the game in early 2018. The New Mexico Bowl was played on Dec. 15, 2018, without a title sponsor.
It remained without a title sponsor until Oct. 1, when Siembieda and ESPN Events vice president Clint Overby held a well-publicized news conference to announce a four-year deal between DreamHouse and the game.
It did not have a title sponsor during its first five years, 2006-2010.
Enchantment Sports began its investigation of DreamHouse and the bowl game that day, and posted its first story in the series “Dream or Nightmare” on Oct. 11, alleging Martinez as a con man.
ESPN ended its sponsorship with DreamHouse on Oct. 24, but will not say why. The announcement came on the day that the Albuquerque Journal picked up on Enchantment Sports’ series of stories uncovering Martinez as a con artist that began on Oct. 11.
Also, below is the latest from Eric Martinez’s website, I am Eric Martinez:
Mark Smith has worked in New Mexico sports media for more than four decades, and is one of the most decorated sports journalists in state history. Smith has won more than 30 combined awards in print, television and radio and has been honored nationally for investigative reporting. He is the editor in chief of Enchantment Sports. Contact him at mark.enchantmentsportsNM@gmail.com.
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