MasterCard’s longtime position as a PGA Tour official marketing partner “will continue through 2016, based on a renewal signed with the tour last week,” according to Michael Smith of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The company, which “has been a tour partner since 1995, plans to roll out several new initiatives in 2013.” MasterCard will “continue to display its marks on the PGA Tour’s scoreboards across the course at each tournament, giving it some of the highest visibility available at a tour event.” The additional four years on the partnership aligns the tour partnership with its presenting sponsorship of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, "which was extended earlier this year and also runs through the 2016 season.” It has been presenting sponsor of Palmer’s tournament since ‘04. Industry insiders said that an official marketing partnership like MasterCard’s “goes for $5 million to $7 million a year.” The presenting sponsorship for Palmer’s tournament “is around $8 million, putting MasterCard’s spending on rights fees at $13 million to $15 million a year.” Neither MasterCard nor the tour “would comment on the cost of the rights.” MasterCard’s renewal “ranks among the tour’s biggest sponsorship wins this year because the company is one of the tour’s most prolific advertisers and offers some of the most robust activation among its marketing partners” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 12/17 issue).
