The USTA has "signed seven new or renewed sponsorships"
for its U.S. Open Tennis Championships that will "gross more
than" $40M over five years, according to Daniel Kaplan of
the SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, who notes the USTA "plans to
announce" the deals early this week. Heineken and
MassMutual each signed five-year renewals, while Chase
Manhattan signed a four-year renewal and Fila a two-year
renewal. Meanwhile, Elle signed a new three-year deal in
the women's magazine category, and PricewaterhouseCoopers
and ING Bearings are on for one year each in the accounting
and investment banking categories, respectively. As part of
the signings, the USTA is "pushing sponsors to promote"
their U.S. Open ties "more fully in an effort" to provide
the event "greater visibility beyond the two weeks of play."
Fila's new deal will allow the company "to aggressively sell
Open merchandise globally during August," and Heineken,
which signed the "most lucrative renewal ... worth tens of
millions" of dollars, "may launch some tennis-themed" promos
leading up to the event. While the Open projected that it
would gross $34M from sponsorship deals, USTA CMO Pierce
O'Neil says that the event is now "on pace to significantly
exceed those estimates" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/17).
PEPSI'S OPEN GIVEAWAY: BRANDWEEK's Terry Lefton reports
that PepsiCo is "leveraging its seven-year-old" U.S. Open
sponsorship "as a sales volume building device for the first
time" with an effort in the N.Y. market that will "give away
a minimum of 20,000 tickets in a 'buy one-get one free'"
promo. The promo marks the first time a USTA sponsor has
"engineered a ticket giveaway." CT-based Millsport handles
PepsiCo's USTA sponsorship (BRANDWEEK, 7/17 issue).
