OMEGA DUBAI LADIES MASTERS

December 8, 2012

Vivek Batra

Ivan Khodabakhsh

Q.  Can you give us your reaction to being appointed as Alex\'s successor?

IVAN KHODABAKHSH:  Well, I\'m absolutely delighted to join the LET.  I think it\'s a fantastic organization and on top of that, a fantastic potential of growth for the future.  So that\'s the reason I\'m really, really happy to have this opportunity to join the Ladies European Tour.  Yeah, that\'s basically it.

Q.  Whereabouts do you see that growth being?

IVAN KHODABAKHSH:  I believe golf is a fantastic sport.  The Ladies European Tour is doing a great job.  The players are great.  They are fantastic brand ambassadors, but let\'s be quite clear.  We are not an the same level of exposure that the men\'s tour is receiving, so there is no reason, there is no rational reason why there should be such a gap.  So I think this is where we can really grow.

Q.  And in terms of, this is an issue that\'s happened with the men\'s European Tour, as well, they are concentrating less on Europe and more on Asia and events, venues like that.  Is that something we\'ll see from the Ladies European Tour, they will grow more into Asian markets?

IVAN KHODABAKHSH:  Golf is a world sport.  It\'s a golf which exciting fans worldwide, and we have the best players.  Why shouldn\'t we be bringing them to different countries.

But on the other side, yes, the core events are happening in Europe and that is something that we will strive to, but it\'s a natural growth in terms of all of us together growing.  It not necessarily means that we have to grow dramatically the number of events but growing the exposure of the events, growing the value of the events, that\'s what we want to see.

Q.  What do you make of the job that Alex has done and the product you\'re inheriting and how can you fine‑tune it or make it better?  How do you proceed from here?

IVAN KHODABAKHSH:  Well, I think Alex has done a fantastic job.  It\'s a good organization, good tournaments.  Everything is properly in place.  I\'m actually not used to it.  I\'m used to take over things which I have to really build up from scratch.

That\'s why I believe we can make things from a commercial perspective, this growth happening, pretty fast, because it\'s already a great product in place.

Q.  Just about your background, what\'s your sport backgrounds, business background?

IVAN KHODABAKHSH:  Well, I\'m actually sport really truly because of my passion for sport, I\'ve done almost every sport including golf myself, having found my talent in organising events, being in sports business; that\'s why I moved into sports.

Really I learned my first steps for the university sports, which is fantastic, because I have the opportunity to learn not just one sport but over 20 different sports on a national level.  That is the foundation of my work.  Moving then to athletics on international level, European event I organised, and as you know the exposure of athletics, track and field is huge.

Then I had the unique opportunity to join the International Boxing Association, the governing body of the Olympic body sport, to create from scratch a completely new boxing league worldwide.

So I think this gave me‑‑ really rounded out my professional career and gave me enough experience to now take up this challenge with the Ladies European Tour.

Q.  Have you discussed priorities, like coming into your role, what will be your immediate goals?

IVAN KHODABAKHSH:  We have exchanged ideas, but I have also clearly expressed that the first 100 days will be a lot of consulting with different partners, consulting the board.  And I\'m not coming in saying I know it all.  I have to listen, I have to learn and I want to make an audit of all of the rights and obligations of the Ladies European Tour and then present a proper plan.

I have my ideas in my head but I would rather go through a process first.

Q.  Can I ask the two members of the panel what impressed them the most?

VIVEK BATRA:  Sure, it was a unanimous choice of the board.

I think it was on a professional level, it was the deep knowledge of event management experience and to achieve a lot globally and the expertise of having done that.  And then also the leadership capabilities that gave an idea and made it a very successful series, because again, that\'s the potential of the Ladies European Tour, as well.

So with that, the ability to get the job done and take an idea to a successful run, and also the diversity‑‑ and I think the discussion for us‑‑ inaudible‑‑ and also his style of leadership and dealing with a large number of external partners, which I think he will be very successful with the Ladies European Tour.

Q.  There\'s perceived to be a talent drain of people wanting to take up their LPGA card or their PGA card; how important is it for the Tour that you keep the prized assets playing in Europe rather than going off to America?

IVAN KHODABAKHSH:  Well, we definitely have to increase the prize money, but if we see how LET is already based with a very strong foundation in Europe with already events happening in Asia and in Australia, New Zealand, I think we are capable of competing on the same level, on the commercial level.

So it\'s not only the big American companies which can invest in golf.  We can activate the European, the Asian companies in the same way.

That\'s why we are talking about globalisation.  We don\'t have just a few companies; there\'s a huge number of companies out there which can see our sport as the proper brand ambassadors for their product.

Q.  How would you sum up the former CEO\'s reign?  How could you sum up her achievements, what she did?

KAREN LUNN:  Alex has obviously been in the role for many years, and the Tour had some problems and the business is in a very strong position.

Obviously we have a consistent and a fairly strong schedule.  We have some great partners with the tour.  Alex had great relationships with our sponsors and promotors and all of our stake holders, and I think she was a very successful Executive Director for the Tour.

Obviously now she\'s moved on and we thank her very much for her commitment to the tour.

VIVEK BATRA:  I think the Tour has grown from when Alex was appointed.  It\'s in good, solid financial standing.  I think it has a tour grown from 14 events to 29.  The prize money has tripled, or is definitely more than two times, so a fantastic amount of success.  I think the last‑‑ and the TV rights, we have a new product being developed to provide live TV and I think that\'s one of the reasons, again, for Ivan, his expertise in exploiting TV rights is the next step that\'s going to come for the LET.

Q.  On the flipside of the coin, this event, you have Shanshan Feng, Michelle Wie, LPGA stars coming over to what is perceived to be Europe to play on this tour; would you like to see that grow, to see more LPGA stars as possible playing on the European Tour?

IVAN KHODABAKHSH:  I wouldn\'t really make it dependent on names or nationalities.  It\'s about having the best players competing against each other; it\'s sport; it\'s competition.  So I wouldn\'t really limit it to that part.

But certainly what we will be looking into, not only the growth of the commercial side, but golf is now an Olympic sport.

That means we are touching many, many more countries and we will be having new opportunities and it\'s important for us to strengthen the grass roots and build from the LET side certain relationships which we can help to bring more countries, European or non‑European athletes, competing in the LET.

Q.  Can you talk about the facts and figures, increasing tournaments and the increase in prize money?  Do you have a projected figure of what you want to meet in five years?  What\'s the future?  How far can it grow?

VIVEK BATRA:   I think the growth is going to be to try to grow the prize money for tournaments and the opportunity to step every one up, because the tournaments, it\'s 28, 29, and doing some international tournaments, that\'s pretty much the right balance in the last few years.  But prize money is where the opportunity for growth is.

Q.  Is that something which you can sell to other countries and get more people involved in ladies golf?

IVAN KHODABAKHSH:  Absolutely.  First of all my background has been mainly in Olympic sports and there\'s huge opportunities there.

There\'s opportunities now with golf being an Olympic sport to activate much more the support of the national authorities, the different governing bodies which invest in sport.  So there are huge opportunities, and there we have to explore that and we have to see how we position LET in there.

But this is part of the potential.  The Olympic Games is a great platform to touch millions of people on TV, and we have seen even mature sports such as basketball when the moment the NBA players joined the games, that was a huge boost for even such a mature sport.  But golf is mature sport, too, and we can really expose golf to more countries than it has been up to now.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports