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Champions Cup expects big revenue jump

International Champions Cup organizers expect a revenue increase of at least 40 percent on the sponsorship side for the event’s North American slate of games this summer while having signed additional partners for new tournament extensions in Australia and China as well.

“It’s an unmistakable tide at this point,” said Bob Brennfleck, president and CEO of Ascendent Sports Group, about the North American sponsor interest. Ascendent is in charge of sponsorship sales for the tournament and is, together with event organizer Relevent Sports, a division of RSE Ventures.

Guinness is presenting sponsor for the North American leg.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
Brennfleck declined to provide any specific revenue figures being anticipated, but he did note an expected eight-figure sum compared with a seven-figure mark last year.

Matches begin July 11 and continue through Aug. 5. The tournament features more participating clubs this year than in prior years (see box), but more notable from a global perspective is that tournaments in Australia and China will be played under the International Champions Cup umbrella as well. Those events, with three matches each, will be staged independent from each other and from the tournament in North America, but all under the International Champions Cup header.

Whereas Guinness served as title sponsor for the event in its first two years, the International Champions Cup has no such lead sponsor this year. Guinness, however, did sign on last fall as presenting sponsor for the North American leg of the event specifically, and Audi has signed as presenting sponsor for the Australian leg.

No presenting sponsor deal had been signed for the China matches as of last week.

“We positioned [Guinness] below the shield instead of on top of the shield,” said Brennfleck, in reference to the tournament’s logo. “That architecture also allowed us to have presenting [partners] in each of the three markets, which became very important.”

He added that the structure allows for an overarching sponsorship to be sold at a later date.

Guinness plans to tout its Guinness Blonde American Lager during the event, including having a Guinness Blonde beer garden at the tournament’s U.S. matches.

Among newly signed sponsors, one such company is job search site Indeed. The Austin, Texas-based company signed a one-year deal for a presence with the event’s legs in both North America and Australia. The deal includes in-stadium signage, TV-visible assets and LED billboards along with two promotional activations. One is an in-venue promotion called The Job is a Match in which a fan gets a chance to take part in an on-site “job” prior to kickoff, such as the coin flip. The other offers a three-day stint in which winners get to serve as team liaisons, helping to oversee the needs of participating teams.

“We are looking to increase our global awareness, and football being the world’s most popular sport … we felt this really aligned with our brand strategy and our objectives of where we are heading,” said Mary Ellen Dugan, vice president of global marketing at Indeed.

Indeed touts more than 180 million unique visitors globally per month, with the service available in more than 50 countries.

San Francisco-based Bleacher Report has come on board as a partner. The Turner Sports-owned entity will feed the tournament’s website with editorial and videos, while Bleacher Report’s editorial team will receive VIP access to games, and the company also will receive signage, said Matt Grandis, vice president of corporate partnerships and media at Ascendent.

“Soccer is a strategically important area of focus for us, from a content standpoint,” said Alex Vargas, Bleacher Report’s vice president of business operations. “We are more focused on growing the Bleacher Report brand outside the U.S. [and] more explicitly focused on that as a corporate goal than we have been in the past.”

Aon returns as the tournament’s official insurance partner, and Vivid Seats returns as the official secondary ticket provider. GrouponLive, the U.S. Air Force Reserve and DraftKings are among other North American partners. DraftKings plans a bracket-style game around the tournament that is scheduled to launch this week.

As for Australia, in addition to presenting sponsor Audi (which signed a multiyear deal) and Indeed, telecommunications and media company Telstra has signed on as a sponsor, as have Victorian Major Events Co. and Carlton & United Breweries.

TLA Worldwide last year acquired the rights to produce the Australian leg of the tournament for four years, from 2015-18, and is working with Nine Live on the matches. TLA Worldwide CEO Mike Principe said, “We are already pacing to our budget,” though he declined to provide specifics.

In China, Ascendent affiliate Catalyst Media Group in Hong Kong is leading sales. EA Sports, Samsung, Adidas and electric vehicle manufacturer Luyuan have been signed as sponsors.

At the gate, Brennfleck said early attendance numbers are strong despite not having the advantage of last year’s matches following the wave of soccer excitement that was generated by the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Several matches have already sold out, including FC Barcelona vs. LA Galaxy at the Rose Bowl on July 21 and FC Barcelona vs. Manchester United at Levi’s Stadium on July 25. The three Australian matches at the 100,000-seat Melbourne Cricket Ground also have seen high interest.

HJ Mai is assistant managing editor of SportsBusiness Daily Global. Staff writer Ian Thomas contributed to this report.

International Champions Cup overview

The event expands in scope this year. In addition to extentions in Australia and China, the number of participants for the North America tournament are higher.

  2013 2014 2015
No. of participating teams 8 8 10
No. of MLS participants 1 (LA Galaxy) 0 3 (LA Galaxy, New York Red Bulls, San Jose Earthquakes)
No. of matches 12 13 17
Attendance 306,344* 642,224 TBD

* Schedule included four doubleheaders, which were eliminated in 2014 after not bringing organizers the returns they had hoped for in 2013. Sources: Relevent Sports, SportsBusiness Journal archives


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