LPGA Tour loses title sponsor ADT
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Bill Jempty | Thursday, October 16, 2008 |
Is my home town tournament in danger of folding? From AP-
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The LPGA Tour lost another title sponsor Friday when ADT Security Services said it would not renew its contract after 2008 for the tour’s season-ending event at Trump International.
The ADT Championship began in 2001 and transformed into one of the more compelling events on the LPGA Tour — a 30-player field whittled down to eight for the final round where the winner received $1 million.
The company did not specifically state why it was not renewing its contract, only that its strategy is investing in growth areas of its business more closely aligned with its customers.
It was a blow to the LPGA Tour, which has already lost four title sponsors this year. The tour previously said one of its majors, the McDonald’s LPGA Championship, would not have a title sponsor in 2009, and it has said it might fund the Phoenix event that lost its title when Safeway consolidated its LPGA sponsorship to one tournament.
Phoenix is only the tip of the iceberg. Semgroup, Ginn Tribute, plus the Fields Open are tournaments that are either kaput or at risk right now.
Note- Is AP predicting tomorrow’s news? Note the article says ‘lost another title sponsor Friday’. Today is Thursday October 16th and the LPGA put out a press release today.
Ryan at Waggle room writes-
The rumor mill had been flying about the future of the ADT Championship. It had been declared everything from dead, to moving to the START of the season, to being a part of the new network television package that the LPGA Tour is trying to negotiate. Any of those things may still be true, but one thing is certain: ADT is no longer sponsor of the season ending (and thrilling) event on the LPGA Tour.
And ADT politely slaps down their relationship with the LPGA Tour:
*****
Basically, ADT sounds like they are stepping away from the LPGA Tour because they want to get involved in sports that are perceived as a bigger deal. After all, golf fans are generally pretty well off. And people who are pretty well off usually get scared that bad guys are going to steal their things. So, they would want ADT’s services.
The loss of ADT is troubling. As Ryan also notes, all these sponsor problems calls into question what the LPGA will look like in 2009. Will there even be a US Ladies golf tour in 5 years?
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