PGA Tour Faces Tough Sell in 2010
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the PGA Tour is learning a bitter lesson that the LPGA Tour has already learned — that sponsorships are going to be a hard sell in 2010.
Now that it’s clear the economy will remain in the tank and Tiger Woods will be somewhere other than on TV, the Journal reported that title sponsorship for the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines this week — what used to be called the Buick — went for half of what it did last year. Three 2010 PGA Tour events still don’t have lead sponsors.
“It’s a fairly tough conversation for the PGA Tour right now,” said Tony Ponturo, former director of sports marketing for major sponsor Anheuser-Busch InBev and a board member of the women’s LPGA Tour. “Maybe the marketplace doesn’t allow for million-dollar first prizes anymore.”
Click here to read the Wall Street Journal piece by reporters Matthew Futterman and Douglas A. Blackmon.
[...] dropped sponsorships, anemic Tour events, reduced purses and continuing erosion of TV viewership. Click here for an earlier post on the Wall Street Journal’s take on the future of PGA Tour [...]