The Ryder Cup is one of the most prestigious events in the sporting calendar. The glamour associated with the Ryder Cup is a pretty heady combination of the gravitas of the history of the event, the superstar status of the players, the fervour of the teams to win for their “country” and the huge amounts of money floating around the periphery of the event. The Ryder Cup is a unique event in the golf calendar as it is a Team event with no cash incentive for the players, which appears to lend a huge sense of occasion to the matches.
Because of the dominance of golf as a corporate sport the race to associate brands with the Ryder Cup has sponsors and golfing venues tripping over themselves to throw money at the event.
The Sponsors for the 36th Ryder Cup at the K Club included a huge raft of national and international brands. The PGA breaks the sponsorship opportunity up as follows:
1. Official Sponsors – AIB, Bord Bia, Ballygowan, BMW, Budweiser, Byrom, Clubcar, Pfizer, Unisys, Waterford Crystal
2. Official Partners – Failte Ireland, Allianz, KPMG, O2, Lucent, Rolex
3. Prefferred Suppliers – DHL, Marques de Riscal, Moet et Chandon, Oltech, Phillips, Stena Line, Toro
The official sponsorship deals for the 37th Ryder Cup have not yet been hammered out – it will be interesting to see who emerges to sponsor the event in Valhalla.
Technorati tags ryder cup, golf
[…] The television viewer numbers for the 2006 Ryder Cup are now available for the US, UK and Irish markets. The Sunday Times reports that the total number for these 3 major markets was just over 6 million viewers (the peak numbers were 4.6M in the US, 1.1M in the UK and 600 in Ireland). The US numbers are down 20-30% on previously figures, which may in part be related to the timezone differences. The 1 Billion viewers that the Irish government promised the Irish taxpayer when trying to justify the taxpayers money being pumped into the event was clearly a little white lie! While the total worldwide figures are not yet in it’s obvious that the low US and UK numbers mean the event will not have had even a credible fraction of the promised exposure. Touting the event as the 3rd most important sporting event was also a bit of a stretch (the 2004 Ryder cup did not make the top 15 most-watched world sporting events in a global survey) – lets wait and see how this one fairs… What does this mean for the Ryder Cup? Well with a slide in viewer numbers the revenues form ryder cup sponsorship deals may suffer. It’s up to the US team to put together a credible challenge for the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla and keep us on the edge of our seats! […]
How are the Sponsors for 2008???
Is it not decided yet?
Is The Kroger Co. a sponsor?
Hi all,
We are videogame developers fans of golf.
This is a golf prototype we made.
You can play it online.
http://www.ad-invaders.com/proto/golf/
What’s your impression about it?
Thank you,
Sebastien B.
who are the sponsors for the 2008 Ryder Cup? Is Cadillac still a corporate partner for 2008….BMW is signed on for 2010