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LPGA future

The tour is not going anywhere. However I am going to make a mini rant here. This rant is two fold. First to Ms. Bivens. You may be the worst commissioner in sports history. Your idea of having every deal expire at the same time is absurd. Surely you could not predict the economy, but TO THIS DAY YOU ARE STILL DEFENDING YOUR DECISION.

You have possibly the best field of players in tour history and even some with some amazing charisma. Yet you are continuing to Showcase your ads around talent that will NOT bring the fans in. Does sex sell? Yes it does, but not more than charisma sells. Yet your most charismatic figures never get air time, so the casual fan will never get to know about them. Not just air time in events, but in ads and everything else. Do you know in a recent survey we did via email over 70% thought Christina Kim was another golfer that spoke no English? That is because although she is one of the most charismatic out there, nobody knows who she is. And yes, you CANNOT give Michelle Wie enough airtime. She brings in viewers more than any player out there. Good or bad, it is not always great play that brings in fans. Vijah Singh is a great player, but very few tune in to see them. And I will say this again and I know that so many Annika fans dont like it, but she was TERRIBLE for the LPGA Tour's livlihood. In her last 4 years on tour the ratings went down each and every year. Domination by someone that is not intriguing to the viewer is not good. Now, you have a person that is just like her in Ochoa as the best out there. Clones of TIger Woods at the mic do not sell the fans. He is an enigma like nobody else. THe 2nd highest rated person on the PGA Tour attraction list is John Daly. Not Phil, Sergio, or anybody else. He still brings ratings like nobody else other than Tiger does. Atleast he did in his last stint in the PGA. Charisma good or bad sells, and the LPGA needs more of it.

Back to Bivens, the only reason she still has this position is because of her relationship with ING, no question about it. They influence both tours, but with the talent they represent on the LPGA and their supporting of Bivens have kept her employed.

As for part 2. Fans of the LPGA have to understand that you CANNOT blame a channel for not covering them. Their ratings are abysmal. In fact they are so bad that infomercial ratings are getting more viewers. So that is a big problem.

The fact that they are going more GLOBAL means it will be less televised in the US. My prediction is that within 4 years almost half of the tour stops for the calendar year will be outside of the US. That is not necesarily a bad thing for the global sport of ladies golf, but it is a VERY BAD thing for the LPGA and US fans.

Overall the tour is not going anywhere but more global. Who is going to suffer? Nobody other than the small percentage of fans that still support them. The equipment manufacturers have taken notice and are making less and less ladies clubs in the past.
 
The ING tie-in does seem awfully incestuous. I don't know all the ins and outs, but the characterization of Bivens' tenure as right idea, wrong execution seems spot on.
 
Bivens must go.
 
Here is my thoughts with Biven. I like her idea that the LPGA is something that sponsors etc should be paying more money for. That it is worth their commitment. The problem is....the numbers right now are saying the opposite! And she is not doing anything to improve those numbers. The numbers have to improve, you have to showcase the product that you have, then you can start asking for more. The fact that all these contracts are up at the same time is ridiculous, a monumental mistake. One of too many mistakes in my opinion.

JB, I could not agree with you more as to who the LPGA needs to showcase. As I was reading your post I absolutely was thinking Christina Kim the entire time. I LOVE to watch her play, she is so much fun. The robotic type players are just not as enjoyable. That goes for interviews as well. Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis all can be added as having a fan draw. I always wonder with golf being so huge in Japan why we don't see Ai Miyazato more often. Do they showcase her on their broadcasts? It would just make sense, even if she isn't in contention every week.

I will make one comment on Annika. Her draw at the end of her golfing days may not have been huge, but she is the only thing that brought the LPGA to what it is today. She is who everyone tuned in to see during the prime of her career and brought a lot of new fans to the game. Now they need to build on that.
 
Obviously there are LPGA fans here but out in the real world I don't know a single person who watches an event. Not sure what the issue is either, is it a gender thing where men don't want to watch women play golf? Do any women control the remote control in their homes or make plans to take their spouses to an LPGA event?
 
dynarider said:
Obviously there are LPGA fans here but out in the real world I don't know a single person who watches an event.
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Now you do. I watch every single event, and usually before the men's events.
 
I'm sticking behind Bivens. She's got a good business pedigree and she's been willing to take the steps necessary to fix the problems with the LPGA business model.

Any time you make major changes, there is going to be disruption. (Think of it like losing weight and working out - it hurts like hell when you are doing it, but the results are worth it.)

And she has succeeded in getting the LPGA off the "pay to play (on TV)" system and gotten it to a regular home when the LPGA will be paid for its TV rights. This exposure will grow the women's game. And because a network (GC) now has a direct financial interest in the success of the LPGA broadcasts (i.e. advertising revenue), GC will begin promoting the LPGA heavily.

Bivens has made the right decisions. She just got hit with an ugly economy. Bad timing. It will rebound and the changes she has made will ultimately be viewed in hindsight as correct.
 
Actually Harry it was ING that got off the pay for play system. Not Bivens. And her all contracts expire at the same time is leaving the LPGA in ruins. TGC wanted Wie and ING Got the deal done.
 
JB said:
Actually Harry it was ING that got off the pay for play system. Not Bivens. And her all contracts expire at the same time is leaving the LPGA in ruins. TGC wanted Wie and ING Got the deal done.
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Wie may have been the factor that made the change appetizing for GC, but Bivens has been pushing for it and preparing for it ever since she was brought in. That's why the sponsorship deals were managed to expire at the same time - so that the LPGA could sign the sponsors to uniform deals and present a package to a network suitor. There was no way she could have known the economy would take a historic crash.


P.S. I think you meant IMG, not ING.
 
It was a typo.

ANd you are right about her deals. However why insist at this point she made the right decision? It has backfired and it is time to admit it. In fact since her time as commissioner, not one thing has happened to help the LPGA. Nothing. Ratings have plummeted and she has dont absolutely nothing to try and fix anything other than MOVING MORE GLOBAL. WHich of course kills your chance of TV unless they you want to stay awake till 4am to watch and event live.

As a commissioner, your main priority is to get people watching your sport and selling it properly. She has not done either of those two things, and in turn the LPGA is a failure as a business in its current state.
 
Sadly, I believe ladies golf as a commercial business may well dwindle and go East. Those who hoped to cash in on the lifestyle may find that they missed their window on that opportunity. It stands to reason that it was the overheated 90s, when everything was going gang busters, that marked the rise of the profitable women's tour. But I think Ochoa's suggestion that it can no longer be about the money in times like these -- at least for all but a few of the women players -- is entirely correct; of course, it's a hell of a lot easier for her to say so.

I'm in a pessimistic mood today. Wish it weren't so.
 
ClairefromClare said:
This is notable only because it began on page one of The New York Times. Pretty basic--is it good or bad that the national media are picking up on this?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/sports/golf/17lpga.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=LPGA&st=cse&scp=2
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Interesting article, but I wasn't particularly impressed with the depth of reporting. For example, this paragraph:

Two elite players, Ochoa and Suzann Pettersen of Norway, engaged in a stirring duel last month in Mexico that was not televised in the United States. Golf fans in this country missed seeing Ochoa hold off Pettersen for her 26th career L.P.G.A. victory.
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Where was the explanation of why the event wasn't televised? We are left to infer that it wasn't broadcast because the LPGA doesn't have a broadcast partner until next year. But I don't want to infer. I want an explanation - or at least a statement from the LPGA. The reporter couldn't make a call to the LPGA? And if it is because there wasn't a dedicated broadcast partner, what made this event less palitable to viewers than the Corning, or Sybase, or Kingsmill? Sure, I could guess . . . but I could do that without the article.

Of course, it was nice to see writing about golf that actually contained, you know . . . good writing. The dedicated golf press could take a lesson on how to use, you know . . . English.
 
I found it interesting that their usage guidelines call for periods between the letters that make up the acronym, "LPGA." But, as the most recent onesy Wifey purchased for my daughter notes, "My daddy's a geek."
 
worst_shot_ever said:
I found it interesting that their usage guidelines call for periods between the letters that make up the acronym, "LPGA." But, as the most recent onesy Wifey purchased for my daughter notes, "My daddy's a geek."
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I actually noticed that too w_s_e.

Spoiler
I also noticed the period thing in the article.
 
Harry Longshanks said:
I actually noticed that too w_s_e.

Spoiler
I also noticed the period thing in the article.
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Harry :love:'s softballs.

softball+4.jpg
 
Apostrophe dysfunction alert!
 
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