Ahead of its January launch, brands line up to get involved with new ESPN golf league TGL

Weeks away from its January 7th TV debut, TGL has reeled in 11 brand partners. Among them are SoFi and “founding” sponsors Genesis, Best Buy and B2B Saas firm Businessolver, as well as minor partners such as CapTech, Full Swing, ONEFlight and SYNLawn. Tomorrow Sports, the company behind TGL, and its partner brands haven’t disclosed financial details regarding their deals, though Businessolver and Genesis’ partnerships have been valued at $750,000 and $800,000 respectively.

Marketers at big box retailer Best Buy, luxury automaker Genesis and finance brand SoFi think they’re on to something. The league’s “tech-driven innovation” would “reimagine the golf experience,” SoFi CMO Lauren Stafford Webb told Digiday in an email.

While SoFi picked up the tournament’s naming rights when it signed up in 2023, Best Buy’s partnership includes national TV spots (streaming and linear), digital and social content on the tournament’s owned channels, and venue activations at its custom-built venue in Palm Springs, Florida.

According to Jason Langwell, chief revenue officer at Tomorrow Sports in addition to ad breaks and venue activations TGL’s telecast will be studded with further “brandable moments.” Those could include sponsor logos displayed during replays of live moments from alternate camera angles, or in a “presented” slot on features such as a “virtual caddy” system that players will use to plot out their strategy on the simulated course.

Further opportunities might arise through partnerships with influencers, though Langwell said TGL’s creator program was still a work in progress.

When TGL airs in January, it’ll (hopefully) mark the end of a rocky road. The league was originally due to launch at the beginning of 2024, before a storm wrecked its under-construction stadium and delayed proceedings by a year.

The new stadium is key to the league’s TV concept. Players will hit their long shots into a specially made digital screen displaying a virtual course. The close-up action, including putting, will take place on artificial landscapes designed by golf course architects, each roughly the size of a football field.

If this sounds outlandish to you, you’re not alone.

“If you were to say 15 years ago, ‘Hey, we’re going to be paying sponsorship dollars to watch Tiger Woods hit a ball into a screen,’ people would look at you like you had two heads,” said Chris Jones, managing partner of media agency Markacy.

But TGL’s hoping its new-age vision will resonate with audiences whose primary point of reference might be a simulator or a session at Topgolf, PopStroke or Drive Shack. 

While golf participation as a whole has risen since the pandemic (course participation rose 12% between 2017 and 2023, following a decade of decline), in 2022 and 2023 there were more golfers playing at off-course settings than on the fairway, according to the National Golf Foundation. More women are playing, too.

“It’s more accessible, it’s more casual… the barriers to entry have been broken down,” said Matt Dowling, founder of golf apparel brand Rookline. 

Today’s golfer doesn’t just play in a different way to past generations, they have different media habits too. Fans are as likely to watch a YouTube tournament as they are to slouch in front of linear broadcast coverage from St Andrews or Augusta Downs.

Though this July’s British Open merited 50 hours of live coverage across Peacock, the USA Network and NBA, each TGL match will last just two hours, sped along by shorter transitions between holes and features borrowed from other sports, such as referees and shot clocks.

Jones predicted that this “more contained” viewing would draw a “younger, more urban demographic” come January.

Players themselves will be mic’d up, providing viewers an insider perspective not usually on offer.

“It will feel [like] more of an entertainment product,” said Malph Minns, managing director of sports marketing agency Strive Sponsorship.

Best Buy, SoFi and electric carmaker Genesis each stand to benefit from aligning themselves with a tech-enabled sports league, according to Minns, who said there’s a “halo” effect to be gained by supporting TGL at its inception.