NEW ALBANY GOLF CLASSIC

September 27, 2000

Ty Votaw

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: I am very pleased an honored to be able to announce today that the Weetabix Women's British Open will be the LPGA's newest major, starting in 2001. We made this announcement last night to our players at our last player meeting of the year. And we're very pleased to be able to announce that today, as well as our 2001 schedule from January through the first weekend in September, which is the earliest we've been able to release that much of our schedule this far in advance. When we were faced with the decision about what our next major was going to be, we developed a number of criteria that we used to evaluate the various options or choices, and the criteria is listed here in the press release. Basically, they could be perhaps divided into both tangible and intangible criteria. The intangible criteria certainly would be the level of prestige and tradition that one would associate with a major championship and one that would garner public acceptance of the event as a major. We thought that was very critical. We also wanted to make sure that there would be -- the golf competition and the environment within that competition was at the highest order; so the quality of the golf course was something that was very important. We wanted also to be able to find a sponsor who had the financial resources to make a long-term commitment. We don't want to have to face this decision again in the foreseeable future. That would not only reflect the long-term commitment, but also the expenses and wherewithal necessary for television exposure, enhance television exposure, and purse enhancements. We also wanted to make sure that it was placed on our schedule in a way that did not conflict with other significant golf events in the world of golf, as well as have a good spacing between this event, whatever the major was going to be and our other four majors. And certainly having this in the August time frame is consistent with our placement of our other majors. In placing that criteria up against the Women's British Open, we felt it met every one of that criteria, and that's why it's become such a compelling choiice for us to name it as such. The purse, certainly, in terms of that criteria, we believe the Women's British Open carries with it the level of tradition, prestige and cache that one associates with a major championship. Certainly, the golf course rotation that's been announced for this year and the next three years: Birkdale this year, Sunningdale next, Turnberry in 2002 and Lytham in 2003 reflect golf courses of world-renowned quality. Three of those are within the Men's British Open rotation: Lytham, Birkdale and Turnberry, and we feel that provides a very compelling, competitive environment for the best women golfers in the world. From a financial commitment and long-term commitment, this will be a five-year roll-in agreement, which ensures that this event will stay a major on our schedule and we will have at least five year's notice in case it ever comes to a point where it should not -- where either of the parties decide it is not worthy of major stature, which we do not anticipate happening. The purse will be increased to $250,000 to $1,5 million, which would make it the second-highest purse amongst our majors, the highest being the 2.75 million the U.S. Women's Open reflect. We have received commitments from ABC Sports to televise the Women's British Open starting in 2001. It will be placed in our schedule the weekend of August 2-5, which will enable ABC to televise the Men's British Open, the Senior British Open and the Women's British Open in consecutive weeks. We also saw a benefit in that during the Men's British, the fact that we are the third event in that three-week time period will enable us to receive a fair amount of promotional build-up and platforming with the telecast of those events for our event, which is the third in that run. And finally, with respect to the placement on our schedule again, August 2-5, it helps us -- all of those things taken together, we think make it an event that will be accepted as a major championship by all of our most important constituency, whether that's our players, whether that's our fans, and, of course, one of our most important constituencies, you, the press. And we're very excited about this announcement. With respect to our 2001 schedule, as I said, we are announcing today our schedule starting in January and running through the first weekend in September. The reason we're doing it this early is: One, we have enough information to do so. We had waited in the past to release our schedule. I think last year we released our full schedule the third week of November and we waited to get all of the information in as perfect a form as we could before we released it. We realized that given the extent of what part of our schedules are known right now, it enabled us to release this amount of our schedule. You will see there are some TBAs. I will be happy to explain whatever those TBAs mean on our schedule, but there are I think are a substantial number of events I think we're going to put. I think the geographic flow is going to be some of the best that we have. Of the events that are on that schedule, 14 of those events will have purses of at least $1 million or more. Fifteen have already announced purse increases, and we're not going to announce all of those purse increases collectively until we have our full schedule and can tell a full and complete story in that regard, but once we are able to do that, we are anticipating having a schedule about the same number of events we had this year, 42, 43. It's going to be a non-Solheim Cup year next year. We are going to have around 37 or 38 official events and that breaks down to approximately 27 or 28 full-field events and approximately 10 limited-field events on our schedule. The largest purse increase is reflected in the release will be the Chick-Fil-A Charity Championship hosted by Nancy Lopez which will move up $300,000 to 1.2 million. We also are able to confirm that the Nabisco Championship will raise its purse to 1.5, up from 1.25, which makes it along with the Women's British Open the second-highest purse amount. We're excited about kicking off the schedule in January at the JCPenney After School Open, which will mark our return to the Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando, where we had played our first event of the year in several years leading up to 1999. We look took the year off; so as to give JCPenney a period of time to adjust from their departure from the JCPenney mixed team event in January -- or in December of '98, and then in transitioning themselves over to an LPGA event in January of 2000. We are excited about being able to have the Office Depot, our event in Miami, to be played at the Doral Resort on the Blue Course. Both having Grand Cypress on our schedule and having Doral Blue Monster on our schedule reflects a dedication that we have to improving the competitive environment for our players on a week-in, week-out basis. We also have some things that I know are mentioned here in the release relative to that subject. We return back to Moon Valley in Phoenix for the Standard Register Ping. We took a one-year hiatus from that location so the makers of Ping golf clubs could renovate that golf course and invested many millions of dollars to upgrade that event. We're looking forward to going back to that event -- or that location. And again reflects an upgrading, if you will, of the competitive environment. And that goes along with the change in the Michelob Light Classic moving from Forest Hills to Fox Run in St. Louis which is a highly-regarded golf course in St. Louis. That, combined with the rotation of the British Open, reflect a very positive and meaningful upgrade to the competitive environment. When we announce our full schedule, we believe that it will be our strongest in our history. We had established some goals going into the planning for 2001, as well as 2002 and 2003. We would like to have all of our purses average $1 million in purses by the year 2002, and we would like to have all of our purses on the official money side of the ledger be at least $1 million by 2003. Average purse, $1 million by 2002 and all of our purses be $1 million by 2003. Those are the goals that we have established and that we are trying to achieve. When we announce our full schedule, which we anticipate happening in about 30 days, probably the first week of November will be the time we can release the full schedule, post-Labor Day weekend, we think that we will have an official purse of our money events, 37 or 38, in excess of $1 million dollars, which would be on year earlier than the goal that we established. So we feel very good about that. We feel very good about the support very good about the support our tournaments are giving to our players, in terms of increased purses, and their dedication to making the competitive environment the highest that we can make it. So with that, we are very pleased with our announcements. We're pleased with the timing of them. Obviously we said that we would give an announcement as to our last major, our newest major, by the end of September. We're doing that. This is the earliest we were able to announce this much of our schedule, and we're very pleased about that and we're looking forward to having a very strong 2001 year. So with that, those are my opening remarks and I'll be happy to answer any questions that you, my very important constituency, may want to ask.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: With respect to British? Well, there was applause when we named the Women's British Open as the next major. I can't tell you which players applauded, but there was applause, and I think for the most part, that that public acceptance I talked about earlier between the fans, the media also I think translates very much to the players. I think they see the positives in all of the things the British Open brings to us. We're certainly a world tour, and having one of our four majors continue to be held outside of the continental United States is consistent with that monacher, if you will, of the LPGA being a world tour. I might add, and I haven't mentioned this, the number of players, LPGA members, who are going to be able to participate or qualify for the Weetabix British Women's Open are as follows: The Top-15 from the previous year will receive automatic entry into the event. The next 70 off of the LPGA money list at a cutoff point that are not otherwise qualified under the Top-15 will also get in. When you add those numbers together, those number of LPGA players who represent the Top-15 from the previous year plus the Top-70, whatever the difference between that number is and the number of 90 will be the number of open qualifying spots that will be eligible to qualify for the event in an Open qualifier that will be held in this country, at a date and time and place to be determined. But it will be obviously be done in such a way to enable players who will come through the heavy purse period of June next year, and give them time to plan their trips accordingly if they do, in fact, qualify. So we do guarantee at least 90 LPGA members in the event starting next year, which is an increase of a potential of 65 players that have been the number that could qualify for the British Open in previous years. 65 was the maximum number it could have been because you had the Top-15 from the previous year that potentially could have been LPGA members and the Top 50 from the money list. So we've added 20 spots off of the money list and we've added the Open qualifier here in this country; so an increase of 25 spots potentially, from 65 to 90. And we think the Open qualifier in this country is an important issue because it is expensive. There still going to be an Open qualifier in Britain for people who otherwise would not get in. They would have to have the expense and time to go over there and do it with no guarantees of qualifying, which is somewhat prohibitive for a lot of players. It will be approximately 30 days in advance -- the August 4-5 date, 30 days priors to that gets you through the month of June where you've got the Women's Open, you've got Rochester, you've got Evian, you've got McDonald's, you've got Shop Rite, you've got Toledo that are all million dollars plus events. So we felt it was important for players to get through that pretty heavy murderer's row, if you will, of events in terms of the money positions, putting them in a place on the money list that would get them in a position to qualify for the Top-70. We think that's meaningful, and then the people can qualify beyond that, as well.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: It was a slam dunk decision. And I don't say this facetiously. I think we're very fortunate that we have 42 events that I consider to be major championships on our schedule. Four of them happen to have uppercase M's after that major designation, as opposed to lowercase M's. A number of tournaments inquired as to what the criteria would be for a major championship. And when we went through all of the various elements with each of the inquiries that we wanted to take as a matter of respect, we felt that the Women's British Open was by far the most compelling and one that matched up the best to the criteria that we established.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: Yes. I'll answer the first question. Certainly a lot of things influence where a player plays an events. And certainly the purse is one that perhaps crassly or non-crassly affects. Certainly having $1 million purse impacts that a great deal. The fact that this event is one week before the Solheim Cup, and you've got 45, 46, 47 of the Top 50 who are here that week, many are here including Solheim Cup players, speaks volumes for how players feel about this event, feel about purse, feel about this facility, feel about how they are treated. And so I think up with of the things that we wanted to do in setting our schedule was put as strong an event we could after the Women's British Open to incentive get as many players to come back. Probably a different situation than being a week before the Solheim Cup, as opposed to being a week after the British Open admittedly, but we wanted to make sure we put a strong event after that. Then I think it will be up players to the players to decide. I know the European Tour usually plays the Swedish Open the week after the British Open; so a number of Swedish players and European players go over there and play that event. There may be a slight fall-off in the European participation in this event next year. I think still you'll be able to celebrate at this time next year who is here, as opposed to who is not here. With respect to Dayton, the TBA, it's May 18-20 on the schedule -- is one of the choices for Dayton. Basically, we're in conversations with Dayton about where their purse is going to be where and where the ability for them to meet our minimum standard of purse is. And we're into negotiations with them, but we have not finalized those discussions, and that's why they are not on the schedule just yet. But if they are on the schedule, they will in all likelihood go on May 18-20.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: I think that's certainly part of No. 1; No. 1 of the criteria I listed. I think that the Women's British Open name does have a certain shorthand kind of acceptance for the golf fan and the non-golf fan. I understand that. The Men's British Open certainly has been a major on the men's side for decades. Some people have actually made comments that the LPGA should distinguish themselves from the men and not name the British; just because the men have the British doesn't mean we should have the British. I would say we have eight or nine criteria for this. The fact that the men have a British Open as their major may have played a small part, or a positive, as opposed to a negative, because frankly, the PGA TOUR has had some level of success over the years, and we could perhaps learn from that success. But I think all of the criteria that I have established or that we have mentioned here today make it the most compelling choice that we have. The fact that the men also have a British and the fact that that may -- some positive imagery may accrue to that fact I think is certainly a positive, but it's not a critical issue for our decision, or was not a critical part of our decision.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: Well, quick is a relative term, Lisa. I don't know if we would have learned anything more by taking a year of only having three. I think the Women's British Open still would have been the most compelling choice a year from now. And once we established criteria and once we applied the British Open and the elements and the enhancements and improvements the event has made in terms of television exposure, both in terms of long-term commitment, quality of the golf course all of those things matched up to the criteria. We came to the conclusion that we don't think there was any upside in waiting. In fact, there probably could have been more downside in waiting because there could have been a lack of credibility in us not being able to select or designate a fourth major. And therefore, why wait, is the conclusion we came to.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: I hope I can say it.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: No, there won't be. The first notch in a player's career as a major winner will be -- in terms of the British Open will be the winner of 2001, Weetabix. Which is consistent with the winners of the du Maurier or its predecessors before 1979 when we designated it a major; the winners of the predecessors to the Nabisco Championship, whether it was the Nabisco Dinah Shore or Colgate Dinah Shore in the early 70s to probably 1984, those people are not designated as winning majors. The same will be applied to the Women's British Open.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: Contingent on who is in it, ABC's or ours?

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: I can't speak for ABC, but I can speak for us. Having broadcast network television was a critical component to whatever event we designated as the next major. As so when it germinated in someone's mind, I can't really speak to, but I can tell that you certainly having the marketing and promotional platform that having the three British Opens consecutive on one network provides us and having August 4-5 be at a time in the world of golf where it is squarely between the British and PGA so we're not being restrictive with respect to conflicts there. Having the promotional platform relative to the three events on ABC. Having the BBC crew and ABC crew there all three weeks enabled them to facilitate that in a much easier way than perhaps another network having to have the expense or the efficiencies gained by going over there. All of those things played a factor in our discussions. It was a fairly shorthand discussion to be able to say, if we made this a major, and if we could schedule it in a way that was consistent with where you were over there, would it this be of interest to you and ABC was extremely amenable to those environments. I think it was a mutual -- it was not a secret in the world of golf that we were faced with selecting a fourth major. So who came up with the idea first, I really can't say in terms of whose idea it was. But it was an intriguing idea from the start. And until we matched up all the criteria, we didn't come to any decision relative to that. So our discussions with ABC were such that, if this happened, and if this happened, and if we were able to name the British Open as a major, would there be an interest in that, and the answer to those questions was yes, but there were still some conditions or qualifications upon that.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: The contact for the British Open is with the R&A, and I think that's up for negotiation, or up for renewal at the end of next year. The R&A via it's relationship -- or the Ladies Golf Union via its relationship with the R&A as to television, the Women's British Open has always been part of the R&A television deal. In the past it has been part of the highlights package ESPN has done. This year and last year we were able to televise Sunday's round on ESPN2 on a tape-delay basis for a couple of hours. That was tied into the R&A deal for the Men's British Open and Senior British Open. So there was a participatory effect that the R&A had in this arrangement to incorporate this event in their overall ABC deal, and those discussions for renewal, I think relative to the ABC R&A deal, I'm not privy to, but it is included in that package and I think going forward, it will continue to be included in that package subject to those negotiations.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: Right now there is a commitment -- we're working that out right now there is a commitment on the part of ESPN to do highlights of the early rounds. I think our intentions would be to have our four days covered, the first two by ESPN and the last two by ABC, which is consistent with how they treat both the Men's and the Senior British Opens.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: Well, that's one of the reasons we don't have purses on this schedule. We're still kind of shaking that out. Last year Dayton was the lowest purse on our schedule at $650,000. We anticipate the lowest purse in our schedule being north of that number next year, and once we shake out definitively what our purses are for all of our events, we'll be able to have that as a benchmark, or a baseline, if you will for our purses. I'm not at liberty so say what that baseline is right now. Some things are going to play out over the next 30 days until we announce our full schedule. But one of the things we're saying is all of our tournaments relative to where they fit on the schedule and where they fit purse-wise, we think that there is a minimum price that we need to establish for what our product is, and if you request not meet that price, we feel we have reached a level of success and level of strength, if you will, in the marketplace to say we are not willing to sell our product for something less than that baseline price; and we would rather not have an event that week then to go below that baseline price. And that's one of the discussions we're having with these TBA events.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: That's correct.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: Yeah, there's a week off there. We have moved Takefuji up in front of Cup O'Noodles in Hawaii as opposed to following Cup O'Noodles in Hawaii. And there were some scheduling impacts to that relative to some conventions that are being held on either Kona or on Oahu that made it -- I think it is Kona that made it impossible for Kona to be the week after Cup O'Noodles; we had to move it above. There's a week off between the two Hawaii events and Australia, between those two Hawaii and to this TBA. Safe to assume it would be Australia -- there are some contractual issues that are being worked out between the contract holder of that event and it's title sponsor, and until those contract issues are finalized, we felt it was best to not put it on the schedule because the possibility was it may not be able to be finalized. We felt that not putting it on the schedule was the more prudent way to go. But if it is on the schedule, that's where it will be. That's where the Australian Ladies Masters will go and there will be a week off between that Hawaii event and the sort of -- that tournament week.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: Well, we've had a presence in Canada for 20 years and we may go back -- we have an opportunity to go back to Canada. The process there is that we have been speaking with three interested parties to come back to Canada who are willing to step up and take the risk on the event and to take the responsibility of bringing the event back -- an event back to Canada. We sent bid applications for the right to do that to three -- those three individuals, and two of them have responded in a -- on a going-forward basis. One has declined the bid and we are in the process of discussing and negotiating their going-forward bids with those two parties. And if there is an event in Canada as a result of those negotiations, August 16-19 would be where it goes.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: It will be in that time frame. I think how full our fall gets, which is one of the things we're determining in a non-Solheim Cup year. There is a chance it may move up a week or so, but it will still be in the October time frame relative to the end of the year and relative to our last full-field domestic event and before we go to Japan or the Far East.

COMMISSIONER VOTAW: Well, when Dayton was in May this year, I think the same thing could have been said in terms of three events in a six-week period, an earlier time period, but still. Ohio has been very, very good to the LPGA. I Ohio has been very good to professional golf general, with the success of the Memorial, with the success of the event in Akron on the PGA TOUR. Certainly the three or four event we've had on our schedule the past several years -- certainly being an Ohio native, I certainly have a warm spot in my heart for Ohio. So I've love to see as many events as possible in Ohio. I think we could have four events in Ohio over that period of time. They are distinct markets. We have been in Toledo something like 16 or 17 years. We have about been in Youngstown and Warren area for close to ten years now. And certainly Columbus and Dayton are relatively newcomers to it. But I think that we think that the LPGA brings a lot of tourism and we think the LPGA brings a lot of economic impact to the communities in Ohio, and I think they have been very good to us in return. Three of those events are $1 million purses, which are high on our rankings in terms of high purses. So we think that Ohio is not at a full saturation level yet. I'd like to get the whole state covered, which the only thing we haven't really covered is the southeast part of the state. We have central, northeast, northwest and southeast covered. I don't think we're going to have five any time soon, but I think four could be done. Distinct markets, yeah. Having an event in Dayton and Cincinnati may be a little bit tougher, which is why we don't have it. Youngstown and Akron, we don't have it. But Columbus, Toledo, Dayton and Youngstown, Warren I think are distinct enough. Speaking of million dollar events, when we announce our full schedule, we are anticipating having, depending on some other purse increases that we are still working through, we are anticipating having somewhere between 18 and 20 events that have $1 million or more in purses which is up from 12 this past year, which we feel very good about as well. We're projecting that. So if in 30 days it's something less than 18, you can come back and ask me why it wasn't.

End of FastScripts...