The U.S. Golf Association has added a regional partnership tier for its sales of the U.S. Open, signing Dick’s Sporting Goods as the first such sponsor for this year’s event.
The 2016 Open begins this week at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club. Dick’s is based near Pittsburgh International Airport, about an hour west.
The high-six-figure deal will provide Dick’s with hospitality throughout the week. Leading up to this week, it also provided a connection to the USGA-run Epic Putt Challenge. That activation, which let participants attempt putts of different lengths, was held at Oakmont-area Dick’s locations.
The USGA’s goal with the new sponsorship tier is to get local companies involved in the U.S. Open by offering a more affordable piece of sponsorship inventory to businesses unable or unwilling to pay the minimum seven figures annually over multiple years that full USGA corporate deals cost.
“We have historically had full corporate partners and hospitality buyers and nothing in between,” said Sarah Hirshland, senior managing director of business affairs for the USGA. “We are starting to create a category in between and are calling them ‘regional supporters.’”
While Dick’s was the only company that was signed on the regional tier this year, more deals will be shopped next year, when the event is played at Erin Hills in Wisconsin. Those sales also could add on companies that have less of a national business presence than Dick’s, which operates nationwide.
“We won’t do 10 but we might do two or three,” Hirshland said. “It is a way to give local organizations a way to get involved on a local level. We’ve never done it before. Because we have the benefit of moving from market to market [for the Open’s host], we can take a look at each market, especially regional employers who want to be part of something but are not prepared to do something on a huge level.”
The USGA signed Deloitte as its fifth top-level partner earlier this year. Rolex, Lexus, IBM and American Express are the other premier-level partners.
No agency was involved in securing the deal with Dick’s.
Officials from Dick’s were unavailable for comment.
Also debuting for the USGA at this year’s U.S. Open is an updated U.S. Open app with a locator that lets fans track their favorite players on the course. The locator, developed in conjunction with IBM, uses real-time player scoring data and pace-of-play information to help fans determine where particular players will be on the course at any given time during their round.
“It is for fans trying to figure out how to be in the right place at the right time,” Hirshland said.
