Sunday, April 27, 2008
Sports
Pitch Shot for Dough
Longtime Atlanta PGA event losing sponsor
Scott Halleran/Getty Images
Zach Johnson, two-time winner of Atlanta’s PGA Tour event.
By Hunt Archbold
In a couple of weeks, Atlanta’s PGA Tour event will celebrate its storied 40-year history with the AT&T Classic at the TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth. But what happens after the golfers leave town remains to be seen, as the event is in serious danger of becoming, well, history.
In December, AT&T exercised its option to discontinue its title sponsorship of the event, leaving tournament organizers looking for a sponsor for the first time since 1982. The company indicated that it would continue its significant charitable commitment to the tournament through 2010. That is, if there’s still a tournament. With an economy that appears to be softening on a daily basis, the timing is not great for Dave Kaplan, the tournament’s executive director since 1983, and the Atlanta Classic Foundation to be seeking a title sponsorship.
“We’ve been working very hard with the PGA Tour, but this is a tough time,’’ Kaplan explains to The Sunday Paper. “There’s no drop-dead date for when we have to have a sponsor, but the tour will announce its 2009 schedule in November.’’
The reality is that time is running short for the tournament to secure sponsorship, as selling the tournament is a year-round business. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has said in the past that the tour doesn’t want a tournament on the schedule without a sponsor. The tour likes a sponsor, which can expect to pay approximately $7 million a year for title rights, to sign on for at least five years, or in Atlanta’s case for at least four years, until the tour’s current television contracts expire in 2012.
There is one other tour event, the March tournament in Tampa Bay, currently seeking title sponsorship after PODS pulled out following last month’s event. Tim Crosby, the PGA Tour Director of Tournament Business Affairs, indicates that the Tampa event could very soon land a title sponsor.
“We’re pretty close,’’ Crosby tells SP. “We had several potential prospects that came for the tournament, as that’s the best time to showcase your event to a sponsor.’’
Atlanta tournament officials will be showcasing their event to potential sponsors during tournament week, May 12-18. If their presentation doesn’t score an ace, then Atlanta, which lost its women’s professional tournament (LPGA) in 2005 and its pro tennis tournament (ATP) the year before, could be waving bye-bye to its PGA Tour tournament, too. And while Atlanta still retains the PGA Tour Championship at East Lake each fall, the loss of the Classic would be a big blow to local sports fans and the economy.
Rich history and poor weather
The tournament, which draws an average of 100,000 to 120,000 spectators, is Gwinnett County’s largest event, pumping in more than $14 million into the local economy. It has now contributed more than $15 million to its primary charity, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
The event was staged for its first 28 years at the Atlanta Country Club in Marietta, and the annual May event drew the game’s best. From 1967 to 1981, the tournament was simply known as the Atlanta Classic. Georgia-Pacific and later BellSouth served as the title sponsors before AT&T came on board for the past two tournaments. In 1997, the tournament shifted to the TPC at Sugarloaf, a move that was well received by the players and has saved the tournament millions in course rental fees. The list of past winners is a Who’s Who of the golfing world over the past four decades: Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, Larry Nelson, Tom Kite, Scott Simpson, Calvin Peete, Corey Pavin, John Daly, Mark Calcavecchia, David Duval, Phil Mickelson, Scott McCarron, Retief Goosen, Zach Johnson and of course, Tiger Woods.
Woods won the tournament in 1998, the only year he entered the Atlanta event. It was held in May that year, but moved to an April date the following spring for the next eight years. The tournament field during that stretch was solid, with players, including notable foreign stars, aiming for a final tune-up before the Masters. But while the field was good, the weather was awful, whether it was rain, snow or just flat-out bitter cold.
“We made only two Friday cuts in eight years, and in 2005 we finished the tournament on Monday and with only playing 54 holes,’’ Kaplan says. “It was bad.’’
PGA Tour officials granted Atlanta organizers’ request to move the tournament back to May last year. The weather was great, but the new calendar date kept some of the game’s bigger names away. Many foreigners will be overseas playing the highly regarded Irish Open the same week as Atlanta, while some big-name PGA Tour players here take a break between having competed in the PLAYERS Championship (considered the tour’s fifth major) the week before Atlanta and the upcoming Memorial Tournament and U.S. Open.
Tiger-less Classic
Of course, the biggest name to consistently skip Atlanta is Tiger Woods, who has cut back on his tour schedule to focus more on the majors while also playing in events around the globe. And as other events have learned, having Woods play in your event can make or break a tournament. Just ask the folks in Denver, where after a 21-year run, the International at the Castle Pines Golf Club was cancelled last year because it was hurting for sponsorship money.
Similar to Atlanta’s event, the International drew good crowds and good golfers, was held in a beautiful setting and was a solid second-tier event on the tour. But Woods hadn’t played at the Colorado tournament since 1999, and the fact is that corporate sponsors, as Atlanta officials are learning, have become reluctant to fork over big cash for a Tiger-less tournament.
Research that traced Woods’ effect on television ratings in 2007 indicated that tournaments in which he finished in the top five saw a 171 percent increase in CBS’ ratings over those in which he didn’t play or wasn’t in contention. In similar tournaments on NBC, the ratings increase was 59 percent. Tournaments will always draw a base number of patrons, but in markets such as Denver and Atlanta, where there’s a tremendous competition for entertainment dollars, Woods has been elevated to the one guy who can truly pump a gate. His universal popularity matters oh-so-much with regards to ticket sales and Neilson ratings, and that’s what sponsors look at. (Woods recently underwent knee surgery and won’t be playing any tournaments until at least late May, but the fact remains that he wouldn’t be playing the AT&T Classic anyway.)
Woods or no Woods, PGA Tour and Atlanta Classic Foundation officials are quietly confident that a sponsor can be located. But don’t expect any such announcements anytime soon, says Ty Votaw, the former LPGA Tour Commissioner who now serves as the PGA Tour’s executive vice president of communications and international affairs.
“We’ve been in the Atlanta market for 40 years,’’ Votaw tells SP. “We feel very encouraged about the response we’ve been getting there. But every day after the tournament ends that we don’t have someone on board is a day we’re losing to make next year’s event happen.’’ SP