The Pitch: The making of a €120m sports brand
The K Club in Kildare will host three of the next six Irish Opens, reaping media and PR exposure ‘north of €10m’. Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE
In the blink of an eye and with the signing of a lengthy hosting contract with the K Club - the Irish Open has gone from being a golf tournament which has sometimes struggled with certainty, into a confident €120m sports brand.
Such confidence will see sponsorship fees for the Horizon Irish Open more than double over the next six years, raising the commercial partnership valuation of the tournament to close to €50m, with up to €70m added through media and PR visibility.
For the K Club, which will host three of the next six tournaments, The Pitch estimates that branding of the upmarket Kildare hotel and country club will reach up to 800 million people, adding up to €40m in brand value to the 2006 Ryder Cup venue.
Cash in hand transactions through sponsorship fees are key to the DP World Tour and Golf Ireland – which can now expect a leap in commercial partnership value to approximately €7.5m per tournament, through investments from Horizon and other associates.
This week’s announcements at the K Club by the DP World Tour signals the rebirth of the resort as an international tournament venue after its Ryder Cup, European Open and Irish Open successes of the past.
The hotel and country club was purchased two years ago by nursing home magnate Michael Fetherston, for what is now looking like a bargain €65m.
Horizon Therapeutics’ investment, which could be up to €30m in cash, may also represent extraordinary foresight across the lifetime of the deal – a sponsorship that is now among the most durable across any sport.
When asked by The Pitch about the strategy and certainty behind such a long-term partnership – six years is an extraordinary length for any commercial deal of this kind – the firm’s Chairman, President and CEO Timothy Walbert said the term was “fitting”.
“(The length of sponsorship) is a great signal of the growth of golf we’ve seen coming out of the pandemic, and a great opportunity to sponsor right up until the Ryder Cup, and we’re so excited,” he said.
There is also a significant opportunity to sell the other announced tournaments that the K Club acquired this week – three Challenge Tour events – the ‘Irish Challenge’ which take place in alternate years to the Horizon Irish Open, on the resort’s second Palmer course.
While very much the DP World Tour’s second tier event – with an average prize purse of €250k - the three Challenge Tour tournaments can be expected to be well attended by purists, and a number of speakers at K Club, last Monday spoke of Irish fans enthusiasm for tournament golf.
Back in the big league, the Horizon Irish Open is now the sixth richest golf tournament to be played in the overall DP World Tour schedule, with three of the top events played in the UAE.
In Europe, its €5.6m purse is only behind the Genesis Open (Scotland) – which takes place four days later – and England’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in September, both enjoying €7.5m prize funds.
Such cash injections may attract some of the big game hunters from the US, who will be coming for the JP McManus Pro Am, which retakes its traditional slot on the Monday and Tuesday after the Irish Open, and which has now been restored as a fixture on the sports calendar.
The take-home from an extraordinary week in golf is that the more that is invested in valuable sports assets, the greater the returns of overall brand and reach.
The PR valuation alone for the K Club is “almost priceless”, according to Jill Downey, MD of Core Sponsorship.
“This is highly valuable media and PR exposure, which will sit very comfortably north of €10m when you take everything into account for both the tournament itself and the K Club,” explained Downey.
So who is likely to occupy the two vacant years from a venue perspective? It is perhaps unlikely that Druid’s Glen will get a look in, despite privately expressed ambitions by the club – which is undergoing an extensive redevelopment – to host Irish Opens in the coming years.
According to Irish Open Tournament Director Simon Alliss, the two missing venues are likely to be in the North, with Portstewart, Royal County Down and perhaps Lough Erne vying for the vacant ’24 and ’26 slots.
It would be hoped by those involved in selling Irish golf abroad that golf links were added to the schedule, which currently boasts the jewels in the crown of Irish parkland courses, with Mount Juliet and now the K Club.
Whoever gets the nod, the horizon for Irish golf has just become a whole lot brighter.
You may not have noticed but the biggest names in sports broadcast media are extremely nervous.
This is due to being locked in a battle for the most valuable assets across any sport – even if the outcome is a foregone conclusion.
RTÉ, Virgin Media TV and Sky Sports are all awaiting the outcomes of decisions that will form their strategic planning schedule for the next six years, and which will be delivered in the next two weeks on behalf of Uefa and Fifa tournament rights owners.
RTÉ Sport is expected to win the rights to broadcast World Cup and Euros football tournaments for the next six years, including Euro 2028, in the largest chunk of rights ever to be handed out to European broadcasters.
Marathon negotiations between Uefa and bosses from all 55 national broadcasters from across Europe – including, it is understood, Russia - have been ongoing for almost two months, with a decision on Irish television deals delayed considerably.
Both RTÉ and Virgin Media have been waiting for a decision for almost a month now, but negotiations have been fierce, particularly if you see what has happened in the UK where England football rights have thrown up a major surprise.
Last Friday Channel 4 were awarded the licence to broadcast all six of England’s Nations League games, which will take place at the end of this season, and the beginning of next – an extraordinary victory over the likes of traditional sports broadcast giants including BBC, ITV, BT Sport and Sky.
In Ireland Nations League rights are expected to be retained by Sky Sports who took over after friendly games were largely upgraded to the third most significant European international football competition.
The Rep of Ireland will play six games between June and October against Scotland, Ukraine and Armenia.
One source told The Pitch that “the status quo is expected to remain” which would mean RTÉ getting World Cup and Euros tournaments, as well as the free-to-air broadcast rights for both tournaments qualifying rounds of competition.
The new rights packages – excluding the Nations League which begins in June – will kick in once the World Cup ends in Qatar before Christmas.
In August of 2017, RTÉ secured the broadcast permits for free-to-air Euro and World Cup qualifiers, as well as the 2020 Euros - which took place last year - and this year’s World Cup finals.
Sky Sports also broadcast World Cup qualifiers live, but it’s not clear if the broadcaster is in the mix this time around, beyond the Nations League.
The current negotiations are for Men’s International Rights only, with the Women’s deals struck separately.
Expect some twists and turns before a final decision is made by European football broadcast chiefs in Nyon.
Basketball fans here will have been enthralled at the Adam McKay Sky Atlantic drama about ‘The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty’.
The drama, based on real events from the ‘Showtime’ era - but with certain fictional licence used for dramatic effect - has been heavily criticised by Lakers legends Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
However, most criticism has come from former coach Jerry West – whose silhouette is the image which forms the NBA logo – have been slam-dunked by HBO, who produced the show.
The company said this week it has no plans to honour West’s demand for a retraction of his portrayal which he dubbed as “cruel” and “deliberately false”.
West comes across in the show as a hot tempered, big drinking, bitter ex-coach with a number of chips on his shoulders.
Perish the thought that such characters exist in real life.
IT ALWAYS promises to be an occasion when the great and good of the sports business and rugby worlds come together.
Friday sees the return of one of the outstanding staples in the Cork sporting commercial calendar when Cork Constitution hosts its ‘Business of Sport’ lunch, for the first time in three years.
Analyst, pundit and commentator, as well as former England and Lions legend, Stuart Barnes will be the guest of honour at this year’s comeback event.
Barnes will take part in what promises to be an intriguing centrepiece when he joins another former Lion - Ireland, Munster, Cork Con’ great – and current club President - Donal Lenihan, in conversation.
Previous guest of honour at the Cork Con Business of Sport lunch, include Ronan O’Gara, Sean Fitzpatrick, Donncha O’Callaghan, Liam Sheedy and Joe Schmidt Organisers of the event at the Maryborough House Hotel say they hope that this year’s lunch will be the start of a series of positive re-engagements with members and the sports business community.
For further details contact Fiona info@corkcon.ie
