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VERIZON HERITAGEApril 13, 2010Rick GeorgeHILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA Q. Tell us where things stand here. RICK GEORGE: Well, I would tell you that the Heritage Classic Foundation is working together with Verizon to find a replacement. We're working together on the future of our tournament and the tournament agreement. We're discussing that. There's a lot of history and tradition here for the last 42 years. Verizon has been the sponsor for the last 24. We're bullish about being here in the future. And we've had a lot of discussion the last couple of weeks. Q. Fair to say you're optimistic? RICK GEORGE: We're very optimistic that we'll be working with the Steve and the Heritage Classic Foundation, hopefully for another 42 years. This is a successful event. We've raised 20 million dollars for charity. I think Hilton Head owes a debt of gratitude to the Heritage Classic Foundation for having this tournament here for as long as they have. And the players love this place. We have every intention of being back here and we're working hard together to try to get a replacement. Q. It seems to be a perfect place at a perfect time on their schedule? RICK GEORGE: Yeah, it is. It's a great place. It's perfect weather and conditions of the golf course are great. This time of year is right after Augusta and The Masters. It makes a lot of sense, it's been a staple on Tour for the last 42 years, and we hope to be here another 42 years. Q. (Inaudible.) RICK GEORGE: No, I don't think so. In the next five days, we've got five days of the tournament left. And this place always shows great on TV. Whenever you can deliver a resort like this and a title sponsor to a premium audience that the PGA TOUR has, and distribute it to over 200 countries in the world, and what you can do to from the division standpoint, the value that it creates for the community, not only from the economic impact standpoint, but also from the exposure. And the charitable dollars, we give 20 million dollars to charity. We know it's important to the community and important to us as sponsors. Q. What other cities are vying for the sponsorship? RICK GEORGE: I wouldn't say there's other cities trying to take the tournament. Obviously we have every intention of being back here in 2011. Q. (Inaudible.) RICK GEORGE: There's always cities that would like to host a PGA TOUR event, and not a lot of them get to do that. We're working closely with Steve and the Heritage Classic Foundation to find a replacement. Q. How many other tournaments are in similar situations right now? RICK GEORGE: We've got probably two others that are in a similar situation like this. And we're working hard with those organizations to try to find a replacement. Q. Since there's not a title sponsor in place, does the State have a loan guarantee or possibly partial sponsorship -- RICK GEORGE: First, as far as the loans from the State, that's not something that the Foundation or the Tour would ask. It's very much appreciated, but I don't think we will need that. I don't want to go in that direction, we think the business center is the right way to address the title sponsorship of this event. That's what we intend to do. So again, we're just going to work diligently together to find a replacement so we'll be back here. There are situations where we've used a conglomerate of sponsors for events, tourism money from different entities for different events, so we'll just play that by ear. We'll work closely with Steve and the Heritage Classic Foundation to make that work. I mean, obviously the ideal model is one title sponsor, and it's worked for the PGA TOUR for a long time. In a situation that we have to find a couple of sponsors to piece together in trying to find a sponsor, we'll do that as well, if we need to. Q. It was suggested that it was kind of the Heritage Classic Foundation's job up to now and then through this week the Tour will kick in, what are the specifics. RICK GEORGE: I would say that's already happened. The PGA TOUR has worked very closely with Steve and with the Heritage Classic Foundation together to try to find the sponsors and try to work together. We know how important the charity impact is on this community and for this event. So we've been working very hard. I don't think you're going to see much of a change. I think we'll be more diligent as we get through the tournament. We believe people will look at this tournament and see the quality and the beauty of this place, the golf course, and I think there's a lot of value in being a title sponsor. Q. The Tour can add an international reach? RICK GEORGE: It can. Whenever you can bring exposure to your title sponsor that gets distributed over 200 countries around the world it's significant. And then the impact you have with CBS in the United States, and The Golf Channel and all the features it can get in the newspapers and electronic media around the world is significant. There's a tremendous amount around the world. There are a lot of value in sponsorships. Q. You've had a couple other negotiations, any companies that may be more involved in those negotiations that you kind of go back to? RICK GEORGE: Certainly, I think when we're out there, Tom Wade's done a great job, and in working with Steve. If there's different events we'll show them what we have available, and then make decisions based on what's in their best interests. We may go back to some of those again. End of FastScripts |
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