ADT May Have Wanted to Stay With LPGA

When ADT and the LPGA Tour announced that they were parting ways after eight years together, we speculated on this blog about the reasons why.  Given the cryptic message in the ADT part of the release, it sounded like ADT simply didn't think that there was that kind of value in sponsoring the LPGA Tour and that they would be moving on from here.

As it turns out, that's EXACTLY what they meant - but it was because the LPGA Tour was asking for more money in the future than ADT thought it was worth.  They were happy with the current price.

Randall Mell reports in the Sun Sentinel.

It's a reluctant farewell for the Boca Raton-based home security corporation, whose officials say would have been interested in staying on as title sponsor of the LPGA-owned event given a more favorable sponsorship renewal offer.

"The explanation ADT gave us for not renewing was that its marketing objectives and means of going about attracting customers was changing and the ADT Championship didn't fit into its future plans," said Mike Nichols, LPGA vice president of tournament business affairs.

ADT President John Koch said there was more to the decision.

"Basically, the change in the renewal pricing caused us to re-evaluate the value proposition of the overall program," Koch said. "You will hear various takes on that, but it is inaccurate for anyone to state that our decision was based on any form of cost cutting by our company. In fact, we have increased our marketing budget."

"At the end of the day, there wasn't any reason other than value proposition," Koch said. "They have the right to think what the value of their tournament is. We respect them for that."

Nichols said the increased pricing was due to "new elements" ADT specifically asked the LPGA to consider. "Everything built into the price was justified," Nichols said.

As we know, the LPGA was trying to move the ADT to the start of the 2010 season or get ADT as an umbrella sponsor of the network TV package that it is currently trying to negotiate with CBS and NBC.  But, that may have been too much for ADT to swallow.  Mell says that the movement of the event from the end to the beginning of the season did not factor in the decision not to renew.  Instead, it was the price - at any time of the year.

This is a substantial revelation given the acclaim for the ADT format and that it is now off of the schedule with an event that is rumored to have annoyed some players.