PGA Tour Ending Atlanta Event Due To Lack Of Title Sponsor
The PGA Tour is dropping the AT&T Classic from its schedule after six months of unsuccessfully searching for a $7M-a-year title sponsor to replace AT&T starting in '09. Plans have not been finalized on which tournament will fill the spot, but a source said Valero, title sponsor of the Texas Open, reaffirmed its interest in moving from the fall to the spring when contacted by tour officials last week. TPC Sugarloaf, which hosted AT&T Classic, will now stage a new Champions Tour event starting in '09. PGA Tour Exec VP/Communications & Int’l Relations Ty Votaw said that if the Texas Open moves to a spring date, a fourth WGC event in Asia and/or a new tour event could be added to the Fall Series (Jon Show, SportsBusiness Journal). In Atlanta, Stan Awtrey notes AT&T in December notified the tournament that it was pulling its sponsorship, and the Atlanta Classic Foundation in a search for a new sponsor "approached 150 companies, but none were willing to foot the [$6-8M] annual bill that comes with a PGA Tour event." Tournament Dir Dave Kaplan: "We just ran out of time. Given the economic climate, it was difficult. I believe we would have found a new sponsor if the economy had been better" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 6/10). Also in Atlanta, Terence Moore writes the event's "departure was inevitable since its officials couldn't find new sponsorship in this brutal economy" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 6/10).
SPRINGING FORWARD: In San Antonio, Richard Oliver reports pending approval later this month from the PGA Tour's Policy Board, the Valero Texas Open will shift from its current October slot to an April or May date beginning next year. Oliver notes "speculation persists that the tour hopes" to move its four Texas tournaments -- the Shell Houston Open, the Crowne Plaza Invitational, the Byron Nelson Championship and the Valero Texas Open -- "closer together on the schedule." The Texas Open, by joining the Tour's spring lineup, would "offer 25,000 in FedEx Cup points for players and a purse up to $1[M] higher than the $4.5[M] it currently sports" (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 6/10).
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