The LPGA beefed up its sponsorship sales department with the addition of two directors of national partnerhips — Jeff Benjamin and Julie Miller.
Benjamin previously worked as business development manager for USA Today Sports Weekly, while Miller had been working at the LPGA as its marketing and development manager for new media.
Adding Benjamin and Miller to the sales department gives the LPGA a defined sponsorship sales team, something that hadn't "existed in a formal sense at the LPGA in a long time," said Keith Cutler, senior vice president of partnerships for the LPGA. "Clearly the sales function was being done, but not through a defined sales department per se."
Cutler was hired by the LPGA for a newly created position as senior vice president to oversee sponsorship sales at the end of March.
Benjamin and Miller will work with Cutler and Julie Tyson, who recently became senior director of national partnerships. Tyson previously worked as director of broadcast affairs for the LPGA.
Together the group's focus will be on securing new sponsorships for the LPGA and securing title sponsors for LPGA events, Cutler said.
RMG3 STEPS UP SOCCER MARKETING: RMG3, the marketing company representing U.S.
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| RMG3 postcards push advertisers to recall the spirit of ’99 when looking for endorsers. |
women's soccer team players in group sponsorship and licensing activity, last week sent out more than 200 postcards touting the players to prospective sponsors, licensees and their agencies.
The postcards show images of players from the 1999 Women's World Cup and say "Remember 1999? ... Here's your chance to recapture the magic."
The cards are intended to rekindle the excitement of the 1999 event and inspire companies to use the players in their marketing plans when the Women's World Cup returns to the United States this fall, said Jennifer Rottenberg, senior vice president for business development at RMG3.
The postcard drop was the second prong of RMG3's publicity blitz for the players since the company was announced in May as the agency representing the players in group marketing and licensing efforts.
RMG3 already had sent e-mails to between 75 and 100 companies, Rottenberg said. Rottenberg said she has had preliminary discussions with several companies and licensees but has yet to reach an agreement for the players.
WOMEN'S FOOTBALL LEAGUE PLANS CHAMPIONSHIP: The National Women's Football Association will play 
its 2003 championship game Aug. 2 at Vanderbilt Stadium.
The 41,000-seat NCAA Division I-A football facility is admittedly large for the fledgling league, said Catherine Masters, president of the 29-team NWFA, but the league wanted to play its championship game in Nashville, where league headquarters are located, and the only other available facility was a small Nashville high school facility.
"Our choice was to hold the game in a small high school stadium or to put it in a bigger, nicer facility," Masters said. "We wanted to play [the game] in the better facility. We're not going in expecting to fill [the stadium]. No way. ... If we get 10,000 we'd be thrilled."
Last year's game, played in a high school stadium near Pittsburgh, drew 5,600.
Contact Jennifer Lee at jlee@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
