Deutsche Bank Happy With Golf Sponsorship, But Still Trimming Fat

Deutsche Bank came into focus with a couple of articles about the German bank and their sponsorship of the PGA Tour's Labor Day weekend event - the Deutsche Bank Championship.  Pieces on the Bloomberg news site and in the Boston Herald spotlight their view of a relationship with the PGA Tour, its value, and how to sustain it in this economy.

First, from the Boston Hearld about the value of the sponsorship:

Seth Waugh, CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas, said the tournament brings up to $40 million in economic benefit to the region, but declined to specify how much the German bank paid to be the chief sponsor.

"The sponsorship has been a home run for us," he said.

But Waugh acknowledged that some of the tournament’s previous sponsors have opted out. "Some decided they weren’t getting the same value out of it," he said. "But I think we’re at the same level that we’ve always been. But we can always take more."

Meanwhile, on Bloomberg, Waugh is quoted as acknowledging how they are cutting costs this year.

Waugh said the goal is to pare 10 percent to 20 percent of spending for the U.S. PGA Tour event in Norton, which he would only say was under $10 million.

"If it comes down to doing a golf tournament or saving jobs, that’s not a fair fight, right?" said Seth Waugh, chief executive officer of the Americas division, in an interview in Boston. "We’re always going to choose our employees."

It seems like the social stigma of golf sponsorship may have subsided.  It certainly isn't being talked about much on Capitol Hill - though there are way more critical matters at hand and TARP recipients are paying back money to the Fed that they may or may not have needed in the first place.

There are economic indicators out there beginning to show some semblance of recovery.  The job market is not one of them, though.  Job losses always continue further than a recession does.  That is due to the fact that the official end of a recession is often identified in retrospect.