For the first time in my professional life, there’s a genuine feeling that the zeitgeist in the sports market is moving toward women’s sport from a commercial point of view.
There’s always been great individual stars, women who become celebrity brands and garner a roster of sponsors from their media profile. But this feels different.
I get a real sense that the commercial sector is looking beyond individuals to the sports themselves, in the way they always have done with men’s sport.
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Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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You can see this from some of the recent deals being announced, both in golf and in other sports, [that] suggest that the way sponsors and the media are viewing women’s sport is changing. It needed to change and is changing.
Look at the numbers coming out of the Women’s World Cup. They’re incredible. More than 920,000 tickets were sold. The prize fund is $15 million, which is a 50 percent jump. Viewing figures in most territories up double digits.
In the U.K., the women’s FA Cup has attracted the power utility SSE for a multimillion-dollar rights fee. In golf, the Ladies European Tour is finding that big brands are more open to the story they are telling.
There is a real sense of momentum, not based on hope or aspiration but on facts and data and shifts in behavior in the market for sports rights. That’s a change from where we were.
There’s still plenty of work to do on that front, but we should applaud these successes when they come around.
The media response [to the 2015 Solheim Cup] has been genuinely overwhelming. It helps that for the first time it is being staged in Germany, right in the center of Europe and a very mature sports business market. Both Ladies European Tour and the host of the event, Golf Club St. Leon-Rot in Germany, have invested significantly in the marketing.
We’re of course aware that the Solheim Cup is not as widely known as Ryder Cup to sports audiences around the world. But we’re certain it will change after this edition of the event.
The sport is world class, that’s a given. The best versus the best, America versus Europe and all that goes with that, the whole two-tribes thing, flags, painted faces. That passion of sports fans is the same wherever you go. It’s universal.
Sponsors want more from golf. SAP, Ping, Rolex and Allianz are broadening how they use sport in their marketing communications and across their businesses to help them in many different ways.
Allianz is a huge sponsor of European sport, from Bayern Munich to the Allianz Arena. It’s incredible that they have come on board for the Solheim, but it’s not a charity donation. They’ve done it because they see real returns on their investment.
SAP will use the event to showcase their technology to clients and prospective clients. We can help them do that.
But the women’s game offers a point of difference, too. Big blue-chip companies value the experience they get when they take VIP guests to our events. They see how open and friendly we are, how open to new ideas and flexible to doing new things, helping them get the most out of their marketing budgets.
The secret of the women’s game is the access the commercial people get to the players in comparison to the men. This is what sponsors always comment on.
Ten countries from across Europe expressed interest in bidding for the 2019 [Solheim Cup]. Think about that for a moment. Staging the event is a decision that in many cases is taken at government level. It needs all the infrastructure to work and all the different parts of national and local government to be on board.
The countries who have star players or have a heritage in women’s golf are in the mix — for example, the Scandinavian countries, the British nations, Spain and Portugal — but also some newer golf territories, such as Turkey.
That’s a country that has invested heavily in the Ladies European Tour as well as the men’s game. It has seen that it works on a number of levels — commercial and from a tourism and reputation perspective — and are seeking to build their association with women’s golf by hosting the Solheim.
We’ve won the last two, and so [the 2015 event] would be three in a row after the 18-10 win in Colorado two years ago. But Juli [Inkster, the U.S. captain] will have a strong team and they will be up for it. I can’t wait.
