Spending $11,000 to sit on a golf course devouring food and alcohol might not seem like the best use of a company’s resources, but in today’s business-to-business environment, corporate hospitality strategically enhances long-term goals.
The Travelers Championship PGA golf tournament rolls out June 21-27 at the TPC River Highlands course in Cromwell, providing a host of opportunities for businesses to impress clients, rope in new business and promote their brands at one of Connecticut’s premier sporting events.
“Banking is very much a relationship business, and those relationships are formed over many, many years in a variety of ways,” said Ed Steadham, vice president for public affairs at Webster Bank, which invests heavily in the Travelers Championship. “It is very much more art than science and this is part of it.”
The tournament premiered its Greenside Club in 2006 in response to demands from Connecticut businesses for a forum on the course where multiple companies can interact. The popularity of the club soared since that first year, so much that the last few years have seen a waitlist for the 40 available tables. The venue will expand in 2011 to accommodate more tables.
For $11,000, those purchasing a table in the Greenside Club get 10 tickets to the tournament per day plus entry into an upscale, climate-controlled setting with catered food and a full service bar. The end result is 400 people, from a variety of companies and backgrounds, all coming together in one relaxed business-minded atmosphere.
“It is very difficult to find a place in business where you can sit down with 40 other same size businesses in one room,” said Nathan Grube, tournament director. “The Greenside Club provides a very fertile climate for business.”
The deals accomplished in a place such as the Greenside Club are not the same as those done in a conference room, over the phone or in a more stiff professional setting, Steadham said. Clients need to be engaged on multiple levels, and strong events geared toward specific clientele are necessary in maintaining and growing business.
“There’s a lot of business in this country that is done on the golf course, and this is akin to that” Steadham said. “A lot of your business today is not always a set meeting in a conference room somewhere. Sometimes it’s in a hallway, at a restaurant or even on a golf course.”
The Travelers Championship expanded on this thinking two years ago when it debuted The Pavilion, which provides an atmosphere similar to the Greenside Club but allows for individual ticket sales. Companies wanting to bring only two or three people to the tournament can spend $235 per person per day and be in a room with 300-1,000 other attendees who are all there for the same reasons: drinking, eating, watching golf and talking shop.
On a much larger scale, companies can invest in bigger opportunities at the tournament to bring in employees and customers. For $60,000, the Corporate Row Chalet offers 304 tickets per day; for $59,000, the purchaser of a Trophy Suite gets 104 tickets per day; and for $29,000 the skyboxes provide for 54 tickets per day and front-row seats to the finishing holes at the tournament.
The MetroHartford Alliance uses the tournament to bring in large groups of people who are thinking about investing in Connecticut or bringing their businesses here. The venue gives the alliance an opportunity to show off what is best about the state, Grube said.
“We are one of only 22 states in this country that puts on a PGA tournament,” Grube said. “The tournament shows these people about the quality of life we have here.”
The Travelers Championship is a 501(c) 3 organization where all profits generated from the event benefit The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, the Greater Hartford Jaycees and 150 other charities. Last year’s charity payouts totaled $1.080 million.
“For a business, you might be spending $800 per day, but you’re supporting charity with that,” Grube said.
As the title sponsor, Travelers insurance company invests the most in the tournament but also seeks the greatest reward. Since most of Travelers business dealings are accomplished with brokers in the field, the tournament experience is less about revenue building and more about branding, positive customer relations, employee morale and being a good member of the Greater Hartford community, said Andy Bessette, Travelers executive vice president and chief administration officer.
This is Travelers’ fourth year as the title sponsor for the 58-year-old tournament. When the event lost the previous title sponsor in 2006, Travelers counted on long-term community support for the event and the company when the insurance giant saved one of the state’s biggest sports assets, Bessette said.
“It has been such a long and storied tournament, to keep it going really means something special,” Bessette said. “The goodwill and spirit created through our involvement is very important.”
Brand recognition is worldwide, Bessette said. The tournament is broadcast nationally for four days — two of those days on network television — plus in another 50 countries across the globe. Every mention of the event’s name realizes benefits for Travelers.
Golf lends itself to business promotion, Grube said. More leisurely than football, basketball or even baseball, at a golf tournament people mill around and interact without missing the action.
“It is an easy hook to get them to come out and do business,” Grube said.
Webster Bank doesn’t have any trouble attracting clients to the Travelers Championship, Steadham said. Employees certainly don’t gripe about staffing the event either, so the customer relations atmosphere has plenty of support.
“It is obviously one of the highlights of the summer in Connecticut,” Steadham said. “Maybe they just like golf or being outdoors in June. Frankly, in Connecticut, who doesn’t?”
