Marketplace Round-Up

Alabama will be home to a second LPGA Tour event beginning in ’07 with the Navistar LPGA Classic. Trucking company Navistar has signed a three-year deal to title sponsor the new tournament. The fall tournament will be a full-field, 144-player event, and will have a minimum purse of $1.3M, “with the purse set to increase a minimum of $100,000 each year.” The event is expected be televised on either The Golf Channel or ESPN2 (BIRMINGHAM NEWS, 7/7).

Computer Sciences Continuing Cycling Sponsorship Despite Doping Scandal

RIDING HIGH: In L.A., Greg Johnson reports Computer Sciences Corp., which was sponsoring cyclist Ivan Basso in the Tour de France before he was banned along with other riders for doping allegations, is “standing by its remaining riders in the race.” But a Spanish subsidiary of Liberty Mutual “promptly severed its sponsorship deal with another team, and cycling proponents in the U.S. acknowledge that it could grow more difficult to attract corporate sponsorship dollars.” Sources said that CSC, to sponsor Team CSC, “would have to be paying more than the $10[M] a year that the U.S. Postal Service paid” to sponsor Lance Armstrong’s team. CSC also serves as the official technology supplier for the Tour de France (L.A. TIMES, 7/7).

RUNNER’S WORLD: A report from Running USA’s Road Running Information Center last week showed that shoe and apparel sales, as well as the number of road races, were up last year. The running industry increased about 6.8% to $55.7B in ’05, “outperforming the U.S. economy,” which grew 4.3% (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 7/6).