Organizers of the U.S. Women's Open "are railing
against IMG, blaming the sports marketing giant for failing
to attract international interest and corporate hospitality
clients to the tournament, which was held last week at the
Merit Club in suburban Chicago," according to John Lombardo
of the SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Merit Club President Ed
Oldfield: "I'm upset with (IMG), because they said they had
all these clients in Chicago and in Cleveland and that they
could bring us international business, but that's not what
happened. ... We have zero international clients. Because I
have a lot of contacts in Chicago, I was able to bring in at
least two-thirds of the corporations. IMG didn't live up to
what they presented to us, and that was all I asked for."
IMG Senior VP Gary Swain: "We've been informed that our
total revenues far exceeded revenues for the past two U.S.
Women's Open[s]. ... Ed was able to utilize his own personal
relationships to generate the majority of our sales
revenues. IMG did make plans to bring in international
corporations, but we learned that successful hospitality
sales for this event is primarily regional and locally
oriented" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/24 issue). See (#7).
