SeatGeek Tapped as Ticketing Partner for PGA of America
The PGA Championship, one of golf’s biggest annual tournaments, is getting a new ticket supplier.
Mobile ticketing platform SeatGeek is partnering with the PGA of America to be its exclusive marketplace provider for its championship events starting next year with the 2024 PGA Championship in Louisville. The multi-year deal also includes the 2025 Ryder Cup, which will take place in New York, as well as smaller events such as the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
More from Sportico.com
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
SeatGeek, which is replacing AXS as PGA of America’s supplier, continues to grow its golf portfolio. The partnership with the PGA of America comes just a couple months after SeatGeek inked its first major tour-wide deal with the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). The New York-based online ticket exchange company also manages tickets for the PGA Tour’s Shriner Children’s Open in Las Vegas.
The PGA of America hopes to reach a younger demographic by using SeatGeek’s back-end technology to make the process to find and buy event tickets smooth. Jake Kearns, SeatGeek senior manager of strategic partnerships, says the ticket marketplace is working alongside the PGA of America, one of the nation’s largest sports organizations, to grow the sport of golf and harvest the next generation of fans.
“We want to support [PGA of America] in fulfilling that mission by putting their amazing events in front of our collection of Gen Z and millennial buyers,” Kearns said in an interview. “We want to introduce [fans] to the game of golf through live events, which is potentially extremely powerful in getting people to experience golf for the first time or the 10th time.”
The PGA Championship, one of golf’s four majors, featured its largest prize pool in history ($17.5 million) this past May. This year’s champion, Brooks Koepka, made history with his win at Oak Hill by becoming the first LIV Golf golfer to win a major, though the final round turned in its lowest TV ratings since 2008.
The new partnership also gives SeatGeek more than a year to prepare alongside the PGA of America for the 2025 Ryder Cup, which will take place at Bethpage Black Course in Farmingdale, N.Y., for the first time. The biennial men’s golf tourney will be played at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome this year.
SeatGeek, which was pegged at a $1 billion valuation last year, announced a five-year resale ticketing deal with Major League Baseball back in February. The New York-based tech company also recently partnered with Learfield’s college sports company Paciolan in an exclusive deal.
SeatGeek also has primary ticketing deals with a selection of major pro sports teams, including the NFL’s Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens, the NBA’s Utah Jazz and the NHL’s Florida Panthers. The platform also has deals with English Premier League clubs Watford F.C. and Leeds United, the latter of which is owned by the San Francisco 49ers.
(This story was updated to clarify the length of the deal.)
Best of Sportico.com
