√Kia overtakes Toyota with $100 million tennis slam

A five-year tennis deal by the South Korean car-maker trumps Japanese giant Toyota’s spend on AFL football sponsorship.

Kia has topped the Australian automotive sports sponsorship charts after a $100 million deal to back the Australian Open tennis tournament until 2028.

The cash splash, estimated at $20 million for each of the next five years, trumps the estimated $74 million spend by Toyota Australia on its sponsorship of the AFL.

When the latest four-year Toyota deal was announced in 2019 it was reported as the biggest sponsorship deal in Australian sport, with a $18.5 million annual spend.

Kia and Toyota both have other sports sponsorships, with Kia involved in both the AFL and NRL football codes and Toyota as a cricket supporter, including a grassroots raffle program called ‘Good for Cricket‘.

Toyota, as with Kia, also backs individual AFL and NRL teams.

Many other car companies have significant sports sponsorships in Australia, with Ford about to celebrate 100 years as the major backer of the Geelong Cats football team in the AFL.

US car giant Ford is also heavily involved in local V8 Supercars racing, although its spending has dropped dramatically since the heyday of Ford Falcon-versus-Holden Commodore competition in Australian motorsport.

“We’ve been with Geelong for a very long time. But we’ve never discussed the financial details,” a Ford spokesman told Drive.

Chinese car maker MG sponsors the National Basketball League’s final series and individual teams in both the AFL and NRL have backing from car companies – including Nissan, which sponsors Hawthorn in the AFL and is also a sponsor of netball and A-league soccer.

A recent report by Sportbusiness.com said the 14 top-tier sports in Australia receive more than $450 million in annual sponsorship.

Although Kia’s backing of the Australian Open is now one of the longest in Australian sport, after starting in 2002, the company is not revealing any of the financial details – apart from providing more than 100 vehicles each year to transport players and officials in Melbourne.

“It’s a big amount, but we have never discussed the details,” the CEO of Kia Motors Australia, Damian Meredith, told Drive.

“Historically, most of the dollar numbers come from leaks. Not from us.”

Mr Meredith told Drive that, beyond the tennis, Kia also had two “strategic sponsorships” in the NRL football competition.

“We have a long-term plan with sponsorship of Thursday night football, in case we have a product that works. And we have a tactical sponsorship with the Brisbane Bronchos,” he said.

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