During the PGA Tour Tournaments Association meetings
that concluded November 6, Commissioner Tim Finchem
"unveiled portions of his master plan for the future" of the
Tour, according to Dave Shedloski of GOLFWEEK. The plan
includes "direct payouts" to each Tour event of "more than"
$1M over a four-year period beginning in '99, as well as a
"pending deal" with Bank of America to be an "umbrella
sponsor" of the Tour's eight-event West Coast swing, a deal
which "could net" $10-12M. In return for its investment to
"subsidize purses targeted to reach about" $3.5M per event
by 2002, the Tour is seeking to sign tournaments and
sponsors to five-year commitments that would "lock in" dates
and sponsors. Tournaments that can't make long term deals
"have been offered spots" on the Senior PGA Tour or Nike
Tour and would be replaced by "new sites in major markets."
Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Seattle, Minneapolis and Philadelphia
are "making big offers" to host a Tour event, with the
Pittsburgh area "almost certain" to be the first added to
the Tour schedule. To date, "only two sponsors, Shell and
John Deere, are believed to have signed" five year deals.
However, most events "probably will sign two or three year
deals with options that extend to five years." Shedloski
adds that while some sponsors felt "more hopeful and
positive" about the future, others "expressed wariness" that
the Tour's larger financial stake in each event is its way
of "leveraging more control" (GOLFWEEK, 10/15 issue).
RAYCOM GAINS CONTROL: Raycom Sports has signed multi-
year deals with the LPGA to own and operate two tournaments,
the Longs Drugs Challenge in Lincoln, CA, and the Robert
Trent Jones Golf Trail LPGA Tournament of Champions in
Auburn/Opelika, AL (Raycom Sports).
