Menu
Marketing and Sponsorship

Long-distance connection: AT&T extends Pebble Beach National Pro-Am title sponsorship until 2024

Editor's note: This story is revised from the print edition.

The PGA Tour has been pushing title sponsors to extend their deals for longer terms, and AT&T apparently was listening.

The longtime title sponsor of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am has agreed to extend its contract with the tour for an unprecedented 10 years. The new deal will keep AT&T with the tournament through 2024.

AT&T, whose previous deal was set to expire in 2014, has been title sponsor of the February tournament since 1986. Financial specifics were not available, but title sponsorships typically go for $6 million to $8 million a year.

Most title deals in the past have gone out three to four years, but as the tour has gone into renewal talks in recent few years, it has sought longer terms. Greenbrier recently extended its title sponsorship to 2021, while Humana, Zurich, Farmers and SBS go out to 2019. Bridgestone, a World Golf Championships sponsor, recently extended to 2018.

Because most of the advertising on the tour’s telecasts comes from its title sponsors, locking down these long-term agreements is important to both the tour and its TV partners, CBS and NBC/Golf Channel.

Two of the biggest title sponsorship deals on the horizon in 2014 are Accenture, a WGC sponsor of the match-play event, and BMW, a sponsor of the third FedEx Cup playoff tournament.

One of the longest-running tournaments on tour, the Pebble Beach National started in 1937 and has raised $110 million for its charities.

The tour also plans to announce that it has reached an extension with Anheuser-Busch to keep its Michelob Ultra brand as an official marketing partner. A-B has activated with Michelob Ultra for nearly 20 years.

Blaise D’Sylva, A-B’s vice president of media, sports and entertainment marketing, described the tour as one of the company’s “premier sponsorships for nearly two decades.”

Michelob Ultra and another A-B brand, O’Doul’s, activate at close to 55 tournaments across the PGA Tour, Champions Tour and Web.com Tour through A-B’s wholesalers. Official marketing partnerships can cost anywhere from the low seven figures to high seven figures, based on the amount of media and other assets included in the package.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2013/11/18/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/PGA-Tour-ATT.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2013/11/18/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/PGA-Tour-ATT.aspx

CLOSE