Virgin Mobile USA and John Bon Jovi will sponsor a free Soul Celebration, following the Philadelphia Soul's Virgin Mobile ArenaBowl XXII championship.

Virgin Mobile USA announced at a Philadelphia rally that in celebration of the Soul's ArenaBowl victory, the mobile virtual network operator will sponsor a free, exclusive concert featuring Bon Jovi for football fans. The time and venue will be announced at a later time.

"We dipped our toe into the sports arena with the Arena Sports Playoff sponsorship, and we were the title sponsor, which was a huge success," said Ron Amram, director of media and communication integration at Virgin Mobile USA, Warren, NJ. "Just being in New Orleans it was really impressive to see all the Philadelphia fans, and to us that was part of the energy.

"You could really see how passionate fans were and that was really motivating for us to take this a step further," he said.

Virgin Mobile USA and the Philadelphia Soul are finalizing a partnership to run throughout 2009.

Virgin Mobile recently proved its love for music at its annual Virgin Mobile Festival, featuring a text-to-vote Book the Band competition with rock band Hollywood Undead declared the winners.

On Aug. 9-10, the band will perform with about 40 other acts featuring Foo Fighters, Jack Johnson, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails, Stone Temple Pilots and Bob Dylan.

In addition to sponsoring the two-day festival in Baltimore, Virgin Mobile USA's also aims to minimize its impact on the environment by implementing a carpooling initiative which allows attendees who purchase four tickets together to enter the promotional code CARPOOL upon checkout and receive a free parking ticket valued at $25.

Virgin Mobile has now become the official sponsor of the Philadelphia Soul, reaching out beyond music and into sports arenas.

"We really see the Arena Football league as a kindred brand," Mr. Amram said. "It is a kind of a small and up and coming brand and Philadelphia is an important market to us and a passionate sports market. You couple the football with Virgin's music heritage, being that music is a big part of what we do and a big part of providing value to our customers, featuring Bon Jovi is a good fit.

"We think that partnering with brands that have similar tone and energy could make for stronger results," he said. "The Philadelphia Soul is a challenger sports entity.

"With Virgin steep in music, it is also a challenger brand, music label, record store and festival. When you partner with people with same value, history and category challenges it just strengthens the brand, and there's a lot of synergy."