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Crowne Plaza Title Sponsorship Of PGA Tour
Event At Colonial Extended Through '15 |
The PGA Tour and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) Thursday announced a five-year deal beginning in '11 making IHG an official partner of the PGA, Champions and Nationwide Tours in the hotel and resort category. IHG will invest in various PGA Tour areas, including media, special events and charitable activities. PGATour.com will feature a "hotel finder" on individual tournament pages directing fans to IHG properties. As part of the deal, IHG's Crowne Plaza is extending its title sponsorship of the PGA Tour event in Ft. Worth, a relationship that began in '07. The Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial will be on the schedule through the '15 season (PGA Tour). SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Michael Smith reports GE "will become a PGA Tour official partner," with the deal "expected to be in place for the start of the 2011 season." It is "not yet clear which area GE will emphasize" through its deal with the Tour. The PGA Tour in recent months "has locked down a number of important deals." In addition to the GE deal, the Tour has "signed Cadillac to title-sponsor the WGC event at Doral, brought back FedEx as title sponsor of the St. Jude in Memphis, replaced official airline Delta with United/Continental, renewed Sony for the tournament in Honolulu, brought on Hyundai as title sponsor of the season-opening event in Maui, added Rolex as a Presidents Cup sponsor, and renewed the Puerto Rico Tourism Co." Other deals earlier this fall included Nationwide becoming the primary sponsor of The Memorial, and Wyndham Worldwide renewing its title sponsorship of the Greensboro tournament (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 12/20 issue).
