Jersey Mike’s/USTA Foundation
Jersey Mike’s and the USTA Foundation’s recipe for U.S. Open marketing has been so well honed over the years that it should get a number and a place on the sandwich chain’s menu.
The formula is simple: Bring in multiple Grand Slam winner and USTA Foundation board chair Chris Evert, put her in ads vowing to donate 20% of Jersey Mike’s sales on a particular weekend to the foundation’s Rally for the Future campaign, have Jersey Mike’s CEO Peter Cancro bring it home by echoing Evert’s plea—boom, you’ve made a difference.
This year’s fundraiser runs from Sept. 9-10 at the more than 2,500 Jersey Mike’s locations nationwide. In 2022, a similar push raised $4 million to help support the nationwide network of National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) chapters that provide low-cost tennis and education to 160,000 disadvantaged youth in more than 270 communities. Meanwhile, NJTL chapters in 35 cities will also host Community Play Days on Sept. 9-10 featuring tennis and a Jersey Mike’s lunch for all participants.
“We are incredibly grateful to Jersey Mike’s for its generosity and continued support of our mission,” said USTA Foundation board president Kathleen Wu. “Together, we are helping young people across the country discover their passion and achieve their dreams.”
American Express
American Express is sponsoring its 30th U.S. Open this summer and just renewed its multi-year partnership with the USTA.
For the second straight year, it’s teamed with social sports platform Break the Love to offer card members free access to more than 10,000 tennis and pickleball courts (and clinics) across New York City through Sept. 24. Since more than 60% of players who reserved courts through the program last year expressed interest in clinics, AmEx threw in free tennis instruction and new racquet demos with Wilson at select courts.
