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MISSISSIPPI GULF RESORT CLASSIC

May 2, 2010

Anthony Topazi

BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI

CRAIG SMITH: Anthony Topazi, chairman of the board of the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic Foundation, and president of Mississippi Power.
Your thoughts on just getting this off the ground. Four months ago this was a dream, and here we are, the dream has come true.
ANTHONY TOPAZI: Well, our coast is full of people with a lot of dreams that they're working hard at fulfilling. Every since Katrina, we've been trying to rebuild better than we were before. We're making great progress.
Here was an opportunity for us to put on a nationally recognized event that would draw more attention to the tourist amenities that we have offer on the Gulf Coast. We knew we had to take advantage of this, and a lot of people came together in short order to make it happen.
CRAIG SMITH: Let's have questions.

Q. Once we finally got around to championship play, have you been pleased with the crowds and the amount of attention?
ANTHONY TOPAZI: The attention and awareness and excitement has been unbelievable. People are so proud that we're putting this on. We hear unsolicited from the players that they can't believe that everywhere they go from when they move from green to tee people are thanking them for being here. They say, Wait, we should be thanking you. This is how we make our living.
But that's how the people on the Gulf Coast feel. They're very proud. This gives us something that we can really celebrate, that we're having such an event on the Gulf Coast.

Q. You said from the beginning that you wanted to make this the best hopefully on the Champions Tour. Do you think you've reached that goal?
ANTHONY TOPAZI: I really do. We said to the TOUR that we wanted to be the premier stop on the Champions Tour. That might sound like a little bragging, but we knew we had all the ingredients. We knew we had a great golf course. We knew we had a lot of resort amenities that could really show the players and their families a great time.
And we have the hospitality of the people the Gulf Coast. So we knew the ingredients were here. If we could manage it well, we could accomplish that objective. I think we set the marker pretty high this week.

Q. How do you feel about the future of the event beyond this? What have you seen this week that you like and moving forward?
ANTHONY TOPAZI: Well, we have literally dozens of sponsors. Most of them have come up to me and said, This is great. I can do more next year. We can make it better next year.
And so people are already beginning to think about not just sustainability, but improving it year after year. That's the formula for success, and I think we have it going. Full commitment of this community.
CRAIG SMITH: We've talked about this before, and that is that you don't have one single sponsor but a collection, which has brought you together as a community, fully together.
ANTHONY TOPAZI: I think it's a great model. Rather than being tied to one single title sponsor, we pulled together 12 founding partners that all carried their fair share, and then we brought on dozens of other sponsored to underwrite the total event.
So it shows a more comprehensive commitment on the part of the businesses and organizations and the community at large. Which means we want it. A lot of people home want this to go on and to be a success. I think that's a sustainable characteristic of what we're doing here.

Q. Do you foresee the same 12 sponsors remaining with the tournament as you go? Or if there are changes, just subtractions and additions and keeping the same type of format?
ANTHONY TOPAZI: I'm very confident we'll retain those 12 founding sponsors. And, in fact, I believe we'll add more founding partners next year. People now realize what we're talking about is not just some average event, but a top-notch, first class event. Everyone wants to be a part of that.
So the enthusiasm and the financial support is gonna grow.

Q. Without mentioning figures, what do you think the biggest impact this tournament will have on the Mississippi Gulf Coast?
ANTHONY TOPAZI: The biggest impact for us will be brand awareness. It will be letting the country and the world know that after Katrina it's behind us; we're back better than before.
We have so many nice amenities for families to come and take advantage of. It's not just golf and the resort properties that we have, but it's fishing, it's nature trails, some of the best pristine water systems in the country. All that right here in a great climate.
Letting the country be aware that we're open for business is the biggest long-term economic value to us.

Q. Weather-wise, of course, getting a little rain now. How do you foresee the rest of the day? Feel like we're in good shape to get through?
ANTHONY TOPAZI: We've got a good chance of finishing up. It's gonna be spotty today, so we're hopeful that the Good Lord will work with us and we'll get this tournament in and we'll be awarding a winner around 2:15 or 2:30 this afternoon.
CRAIG SMITH: How about both ends of the spectrum: Your biggest challenge to put this on, and the one that exceeded your expectations the most.
ANTHONY TOPAZI: The biggest challenge, of course, was the time frame. When we first thought about this, when we heard that there was an opening on the Champions Tour, was in mid-August.
So we had a short period of time to get our founding partners together and to agree to underwrite the event. We had to, of course, sign a contract with the PGA in November, which we did, November the 6th.
Then we had a few months to raise the rest of the money. So the time. And to bring on a management team. We were blessed to find the Bruno Event Team available. Brought them in. They do events like this across the country. They do a number of them. They're first class. We wanted first class management. So that took a burden off of us.
But it was the time to get through to where we are today that was the biggest challenge.
The biggest surprise on the positive side has been the community support and outreach. We knew people would be excited, but we didn't know they'd be this excited. We had sponsorships of all size far beyond our expectations.
We needed 800 volunteers to put the event on. We couldn't stop people from signing up to be volunteers. We got to 900, 950; we're now up to 1000 volunteers. People that want to be a part of making this a success.
So that's another great ingredient for sustainability. Because at the heart of these events, is the commitment of the volunteers to put it on. Because you can't afford to go our and hire 800 to 1000 people to support this. It has to be volunteer support.
We have it, and it exceeded our expectations.
CRAIG SMITH: Anthony, thank you very much.
ANTHONY TOPAZI: Thank you. Thank you guys.

End of FastScripts

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