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Bob Hope Classic Still Without Title Sponsor
After Chrysler Ended 22-Year Run In '08 |
PGA Tour Bob Hope Classic President John Foster and the tournament's BOD are “assuring fans that the event will be around through 2012 even without a multimillion dollar title sponsor agreement,” according to Larry Bohannan of the Palm Springs DESERT SUN. But that is “not the plan.” Foster said, “We will have this tournament (in 2011) and we will have a tournament in '12. We are sponsoring ourselves at this point.” Foster added he “would like to have a title sponsor” and the tour event has “possibilities out there right now.” Foster and Tournament Chair Larry Thiel said that “the Hope's own cash reserves, more than $3 million in pro-am entry fees and smaller sponsorships, like a $500,000 a year deal with Franklin American Mortgage, can sustain the Hope for 2011 and 2012.” But there are “other questions about the Hope's lack of a sponsor since Chrysler filed for bankruptcy and bailed out on the PGA Tour event" in '09. The tournament is “working on a second year without a sponsor." Thiel “echoed Foster's belief that talks with some companies are going to produce a traditional title sponsor for the Hope soon, rather than the Hope having to have smaller but more sponsors.” Thiel: “We are having some conversations right now with relationships that are global in nature. ... We have some opportunities out there right now where it is just going to require us to get comfortable with the relationship, a partnership. I have every reason to believe we could have this put together, put to bed, by the time our tournament is over (next month)” (Palm Springs DESERT SUN, 12/7).
