LAST WEEK TODAY: SPONSORSHIP EXPANSION

MISSING SPONSORSHIP NEWS?

Check out the blog every Monday for a weekly roundup of the past week's most exciting and industry-altering news. These stories cover April 8-14, 2019.

It seems many of the stories we have today feature expansion of current relationships. We love it. While finding new sponsors is great, contract expansions and extensions mean a property or rights holder has proven to a brand that they're worth more and provide better opportunity than originally thought. While these opportunities can come from different things - say, industry expansion, improved play, increased brand awareness, among others - the rights holders have also figured out how to best communicate this opportunity to current partners. For both sides, extensions and expansions are a great deal: you've done your due diligence already, you know your partners, and you've seen some results. You don't have to start at square one, you can add on to what's already worked for you, and perhaps partner on new assets and campaigns.

1. As usual, when we have multiple stories in the world's favorite sport, we'll start there. All stories are from the EPL today.
   • They're at the top of the table, and they've had two popular sponsorship stories over the past week. Meet Liverpool.
     • First, and this is a BIG deal: the team is in talks with Nike to beat Manchester United's adidas kit deal. The club's currently supplier is New Balance, and that deal runs out at the end of the 2019/20 season.
     • More immediately, the team has signed NH Foods to a sponsorship deal. The Japanese brand will get social and digital integration, including promotions with first-team players, and the Liverpool community will benefit through the club's Red Neighbours program with the North Liverpool Foodbank.
   • Meanwhile, the other Manchester team - City - has a new four-year partnership with recruitment firm Hays. The relationship was profiled by Marketing Week, largely due to Hays' status (it's not a global brand, but that doesn't mean it can't have a successful partnership with City).
2. Birmingham, Alabama is set to host the 2021 World Games in case you haven't heard. While the World Games may not have the brand awareness enjoyed by the Olympics or the World Cup, this event has found a title partner for its 55,000 capacity host stadium: Protective Life Corporation. We're excited to see what this US city can do with this global event; will other US cities be interested in expanding their host roles outside the top tier of events? Just last year, Tryon, North Carolina played host to the World Equestrian Games, and the Panamerican Games is always a good opportunity.
3. Tiger won The Masters this weekend, but Gary Player is the guy with the new sponsor (not that Tiger won't have opportunities to expand his portfolio, we're thinking). Staying on brand, OnCore Golf has signed Player to a deal.
4. Esports is ever more mainstream. Case in point, another big sponsor is increasing its presence in the sport. Cox Communications has expanded its relationship with the Overwatch League team Atlanta Reign. This deal includes sponsorship of the team's training facility, season home, and jerseys.
5. The spring is such an exiting time for experiential. This week, some of our most enjoyed content featured SXSW and Coachella.
   • Event Marketer can't let go of SXSW experiential - and it's okay, neither can we - and featured Dell, Activision Blizzard, and others in a Part Deux roundup.
   • Coachella Weekend 1 is over. Did you see YSL's 'gas station' - really the YSL Beauty Station - out in the desert? Send us pics!
6. The NHL is experimenting with analytics. Specifically, Sportlogiq's optical tracking system. Interested to see what this can offer sponsors and fans.
7. Women's History Month may be over, but we're not done talking about women, and neither, it seems, is SportBusiness; Richard Gillis has dug into why brands now sponsoring women's sports aren't leaders - as you may have thought - but followers.

Did we miss any? Tweet @be_tandem to let us know - we hate being behind the times just as much as you do.

Look out next Monday for the usual round-up on sponsorship news.