Cashing In: LPGA Tour To Play For Record Total Purse In ‘05
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Despite Fewer Tournaments, LPGA
Purses To Grow Next Season |
The LPGA Tour in ’05 will play for a record total purse of $45M, according to Craig Dolch of the PALM BEACH POST. LPGA Commissioner Ty Votaw Thursday announced there will be 34 events on the ’05 schedule, with the average purse of $1.39M. That is a 6.2% increase over ’04. The LPGA “lost five events from this year, but added three others.” Votaw said that he “anticipates having more than 22 full-field events” in ’06 (PALM BEACH POST, 11/19). BEYOND BORDERS: In Ft. Lauderdale, Randall Mell reports the ’05 LPGA schedule includes a new season-opening World Cup team competition co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour at Fancourt Hotel & Country Club in George, South Africa, February 11-13. In addition, the LPGA will visit Mexico twice next season. The first full-field event in ’05 will be the new SBS Open at Turtle Bay in Oahu, Hawaii, on February 24-26. SBS is a Korean network “about to sign a deal Votaw says is the richest in tour history.” Votaw: “Our international [TV] revenues have grown 10 fold since 1996. It has made a remarkable impact on the financial stability and financial success of the organization” (Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL, 11/19). GLOBAL OPPORTUNITY: In N.Y., Clifton Brown reports eight of this year's top ten money winners were born outside the U.S, and 24 countries are represented on the LPGA Tour. Votaw said that the LPGA’s diversity “would continue to help it attract worldwide sponsors.” Votaw: “Companies that are outside the [U.S.] see our diversity as a plus to market their products. We've asked ourselves a fundamental question: Are we a world tour that happens to be based in the [U.S.], or are we a U.S.-based tour that happens to play a number of events outside our boundaries? I think we're a world tour that happens to be based in the [U.S.]. However, there's no economic marketplace that’s larger than the United States, and we’ll have the majority of our events in the United States for the foreseeable future” (N.Y. TIMES, 11/19).
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