An Update on the Financial Health of the LPGA Tour

by Ryan Ballengee on May 12, 2009 12:37 PM EDT

The LPGA Tour has been spotlighted on Golfweek's website quite a bit in the last week or so. First, it was Gene Yasuda's look at what the LPGA Tour is doing to ride out the financial and economic storm it faces. Then, Adam Schupak penned a profile of LPGA Tour Commissioner Carolyn Bivens.

via Bushwood Country Club
I know I could beat Commish Bivens at Guitar Hero

It's good reporting and worth the read(s). Schpak and Yasuda reveal the criticisms of Bivens and the Tour (NOT Benny & the Jets) that have been levied against them for some time now. If you read this site, you have probably seen them. Instead, here are the facts on the ground for the LPGA Tour coming out of both pieces. None of these are particularly mysteries - we've reported them in other posts - but this is a good summary of the LPGA Tour and its financial position.

11 U.S. events don't have title sponsors or are up for renegotiation at year end.
Six tournaments that were staged in 2008 that aren’t being held this year.
As part of Mission 2010, Bivens planned to have this many tournaments up for renegotiation at the same time, hoping to achieve network and cable TV deals to leverage in the talks.
The Golf Channel deal is worth about $3-4 million per year to the LPGA Tour. That doesn't necessarily mean more money for the tournaments, though. In fact, the increased cost of production with Golf Channel is being paid for partially by the events. That may well have caused Corning to end itself.
The J Golf deal in Korea pays more than the Golf Channel deal, about $4 million per year.
Concerns exist among players about fewer full-field playing opportunities and tournaments in the United States.
The LPGA Tour may be a value prosposition for companies wanting to get into golf. A title sponsorship with the LPGA Tour is max $5 million as opposed to upwards of $8 million with the PGA Tour.
The LPGA Tour is yet to gather partnering sponsors for when it takes ownership of the LPGA Championship after this year's event, calling into question the promise of a $3 million purse for the event.

Like I said, this is not really anything new to followers of the Tour. But, this is good information to have when looking at how the Tour is doing. It is easy to be critical of Commissioner Bivens, but she does have some solid achievements.

Tweet Comment 1 comment | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

i just don’t see how we all can be so critical of the commissioner. first she lands a deal to make the lpga the first stand alone female sports organization to get a rights fee, second she signed the largest contract in lpga history with j golf, when with money being paid and thier new event in los angles is valued at around 8 million, that’s impressive. as far as corning, they have been struggling for the last few years to raise enough sponsorship money. thier demise was not caused by the lpga, it was the economy. it’s been reported that if the commissioner hadn’t changed the business model there is a very good chance the tour would be bankrupt now. she has definitly made mistakes i.e. the language policy, but the good she has done far outweighs anything negative she has done.

by golfnut1985 on May 17, 2009 6:00 PM EDT reply actions