The Dominion Energy Charity Classic has had Dominion as a sponsor since the tournament’s inception at Country Club of Virginia in 2016.
Still on the hunt for a big-ticket title sponsor to allow it to remain in the Richmond region beyond 2025, the PGA tournament soon to be formerly known as the Dominion Energy Charity Classic is trying something unusual.
Steven Schoenfeld, the event’s executive director, said it is considering finding a foursome of companies to share the title sponsorship, rather than the typical single corporate backer format employed by most tournaments.
Schoenfeld said the new strategy is the result of feedback his group at PGA Tour Champions has received while pitching what’s said to be a “mid-seven-figure annual” title sponsor fee for the popular fall tournament. He said that dollar figure appears to be too big a lift for any single company in a region of this size.
“We have had numerous conversations with several major corporations that are located here in the region, but unfortunately, they have not to-date produced a new title sponsor,” Schoenfeld said. “We are now putting together a plan to perhaps form a consortium of companies, likely four of them.”
In addition to price, the DECC also has had some high-profile competition for local naming rights sponsorships of late. Goochland-based CarMax earlier this year paid an undisclosed sum to put its name on the Richmond Flying Squirrels’ new baseball stadium that’s under construction as part of the Diamond District project on Arthur Ashe Boulevard. And Allianz, the global insurance company that has a major presence locally, signed on this summer as the title sponsor for the new riverfront amphitheater downtown.
Steve Schoenfeld
The need for a new title sponsor has been an issue since late last year, when Dominion surprised the tournament by announcing it would pull out of the relationship earlier than expected. The publicly traded utility giant had previously signed on as title sponsor for the event through 2029 but exercised an option to exit the deal early – after next year’s installment.
At the same time, Country Club of Virginia, the tournament’s host course since its inception in 2016, also announced that it was cutting ties with the event after 2025.
Schoenfeld and his group have since been making their best pitch to all the usual big corporate names one would expect in Richmond, while waiting to find a new home course until a sponsor is in place. He said the idea for a sponsor foursome is due in part to time constraints, with October 2025 fast approaching.
“The clock isn’t quite ticking yet, but it will be by the time we get to the spring or middle of 2025,” he said. “I think the community needs to know we’re at a point where there is a bit of a sense of urgency.”
Schoenfeld said the tournament has begun conversations with companies about creating the multi-sponsor group. He said he expects to make formal pitches to those targets next month with a goal of locking them up during the first half of the year. The goal is for each of the four to sign on for five years.
Schoenfeld admits splitting a tournament’s title sponsorship is unusual and there’s no rule of thumb as to how many companies might share the slot.
“Four is kind of a tidy number that makes it easy to execute,” he said. “It allows those four to equally share the spotlight and it’s a more palatable dollar figure.
“It is uncommon. You won’t see this often on any tour but there are a few tournaments that do deploy this strategy because it works in that community. I think it will work here.”
Schoenfeld said he’s aware of at least one tournament that tried something similar. It was about 20 years ago at a PGA tournament in Hartford, Connecticut, a region that’s similar in size to Richmond.
“We were in between title sponsors and found about 15 companies that came together to save that tournament from moving out of Hartford,” he said. “We signed a title sponsor a few years later and that tournament still exists today because of that.”
As for the search for a new home for the tournament post-CCV, Schoenfeld his group has yet to spend much time or effort on that variable.
“A few other clubs have reached out and we told them ‘let us find a sponsor,’” he said.
But there is one course that’s publicly thrown its hat in the ring in a big way. Earlier this year Henrico County and local businessman Giff Breed made a big public pitch to revive The Crossings Golf Club in northern Henrico and make it home to the DECC – or whatever it might be called after 2025.
All parties involved have maintained that there’s no formal deal in place to host the tournament there, but Schoenfeld said it continues to be a possibility.
“We would absolutely love to remain in Henrico County. It’s the right place for this tournament,” Schoenfeld said. “The county will be our first phone call once we secure sponsorship.”