AST Winter Dew Tour Lining Up Sponsors For Initial Series

The AST Winter Dew Tour, a free-skiing and snowboarding series set to debut this winter, "has lined up its first title sponsor, ... signing a deal with Toyota to title the third stop in the series" at Northstar Resort in Lake Tahoe, California, on February 19-22, according to Tripp Mickle of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Sources value the Toyota deal "in the low seven figures," and it includes "intellectual property rights, on-site activation rights at each series stop, 27 advertising spots on NBC and additional advertising inventory on USA Network, MTV and MTV2." Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless, a sponsor of the summer AST Dew Tour, "also signed on as a partner of the winter tour," though the sponsorship level "hasn't been finalized." Nike and Wendy's also "committed to AST's summer and winter series in deals signed earlier this year." In addition to the Lake Tahoe stop, the AST Winter Tour will stop at skiing resorts in Breckenridge, Colorado, and Mount Snow, Vermont, this winter (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/14 issue).