Citi Signs Sponsorship Deal For Next Three Presidents Cups

By Jon Show, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

The PGA Tour has signed Citi as the first of three planned sponsors for the Presidents Cup, a biennial team event owned by the Tour that pits players from the U.S. against non-European internationals. The agreement spans three tournaments, beginning with the '09 event at Harding Park Golf Course in S.F. Financial terms could not be determined, but the tour was seeking about $30M for a four-event term, or $7.5M per event. Citi, which is building a golf platform around teams and mentoring, is also sponsoring the 2010 Ryder Cup and has endorsement deals this year with Ryder Cup captains Paul Azinger and Nick Faldo, as well as four PGA Tour rookies that are mentored by Azinger. MEC Access, part of GroupM ESP, handles Citi’s golf marketing.

QUIET RIOT: The deal will be unveiled today as part of a previously planned press conference with the ‘09 Presidents Cup captains. The announcement comes as Citigroup is embroiled in a legal battle with Wells Fargo over their attempts to purchase Wachovia, which title sponsors the PGA Tour stop in Charlotte. More golf sponsors were dragged into the news yesterday, as stocks of U.K.-based banks Barclays, HSBC and RBS took a dive after the British government announced a US$87B rescue package. Barclays title sponsors the first of the PGA Tour’s four playoff events; HSBC sponsors an LPGA event in Singapore and a European Tour event in Shanghai that is expected to become the fourth WGC starting next year; and RBS sponsors three of the four majors in men’s golf. Shares of Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank and the title sponsor of the PGA Tour’s second playoff event, also dropped yesterday amid rising concerns the company will have to raise capital as the global financial crisis worsens.