The 19^th Hole

September 8, 2008

Bivens’ Tenuous Tenure

Carolyn Bivens became LPGA Commissioner in July 2005.  She took over for Ty Votaw, under whose watch the LPGA Tour expanded dramatically.  Television ratings increased, gate attendance improved, and the LPGA Tour secured its first $2,000,000 non-major event.  Votaw set the stage for growth that the LPGA Board of Directors hoped Bivens would improve upon even further.

From a pure numbers standpoint, Bivens has achieved that goal.  The LPGA Tour has never had more $2,000,000 events (13) in a season than they have this year.  The number of events with that classification has more than doubled since 2006.  Total purse money toppled the $60 million mark for the first time in 2008.  Financially speaking, the LPGA Tour schedule has never been more lucrative or provided more dollars per event.

Also, the Tour has an international presence that is unprecedented in the sport.  Eleven events this year have been held or will be held outside of the United States.  That is nearly 32% of the schedule of official money events.  For a Tour whose roster consists of 121 foreign-born players, the expansion of the schedule to global markets with multinational sponsors indicates a growth opportunity that is not even present for the preeminent PGA Tour.

The LPGA Tour has also worked to acquire more control over its own schedule and tournaments to earn more revenue for its players.  The Tour has garnered the rights to the LPGA Championship and season-ending ADT Championship and has finally ventured into the realm of total tournament control.  The additional revenue that the LPGA Tour receives from merchandising, ticket sales, and the like will be used to fund retirement and benefits packages for players – something they sorely are missing.

Still, Bivens may well have more detractors now than she ever has in her tenure.  Much of it stems from two events that have happened this season. 

English, Please

The first, and most recent, is the announcement of a communications policy that would have compelled foreign-born players to learn some level of English proficiency to be used when playing in pro-ams, speaking with the media, or giving tournament trophy acceptance speeches.  The players would be compelled to do so under threat of suspension for inability to learn to that standard but would be aided in the effort with multiple resources from the LPGA Tour.

This was borne out of the feelings of many inside the Tour (and outside) that domestic sponsorship was significantly impacted for the worse by the fact that several foreign-born players lack the English proficiency needed to schmooze with pro-am partners that pay big money to play with pros and fans that pay hard-earned dollars to get into events.

While the LPGA Tour made as rational of a case as they could for such a policy, Bivens and her team ironically failed in the execution of communicating the policy.  First, Bivens did not reveal the plan to the media directly, leaving it to Golfweek’s Beth Ann Baldry to receive information from player sources that did not provide complete information about the planned implementation.  This allowed for some misinformation to leak into supplemental reporting on the plan.  With that incomplete picture, columnists from across the world weighed in on the subject – many of them with no knowledge of golf.  That did not prevent columnists of all ilk from calling the policy racist, xenophobic, and discriminatory. 

Second, Bivens apparently did not consult with any of the Tour’s sponsorship before unveiling the policy to the players.  State Farm, a prominent sponsor of the LPGA Tour for many years, distanced itself from the policy and went so far as to say that they may hinge their future sponsorship on the implications of the proposed policy.

Last week, the LPGA Tour issued a statement backing down from the suspension element of the policy and promised to unveil a new version of the policy by year end.  It gave the LPGA Tour a huge black eye.

Sponsorship Woes

The other incident to happen to the LPGA Tour has been looming over the Tour schedule this entire season.  In light of a depressed economy that is likely in recession, domestic event sponsors have been moving away from the LPGA Tour in droves.  So far this season, Fields Group and SemGroup have left the Tour as sponsors.  Many of the sponsors touted as successful additions by the Tour in late 2005 and 2006 are now gone from the schedule.

Both Safeway and the Ginn Company have slashed their sponsorship in half with the Tour.  Ginn Company, in particular, in a subject of great embarrassment for the Tour as the real estate bubble has made evident that getting involved with Ginn may have been a mistake from the start.  The Tour lost a beloved event in Atlantic City to start the Ginn Tribute and now has nothing to take its place.  Other events are considered on life support and the 2009 schedule may look drastically different than it does today.

While domestic events are struggling, the LPGA Tour continues to be poised to replace those events with new ones.  The problem is that many of those events are held on foreign soil and have limited fields.  While the prize money is sizeable and an increase over the domestic events they replace, almost all other aspects are negative for the Tour.  Television broadcast rights are generally exclusive to foreign host countries and limit opportunities for fans to watch the events here at home.  Since fields are largely limited in size, the heart of the Tour’s membership – the lesser-known players – do not have as many opportunities to play and cash in on the growth of LPGA tournament purses.

Therefore, while the Tour has never had more money available to its players, it has become more difficult to get a piece of the pie.  While the Tour has been able to effectively license itself better for more money to help all with benefits and pensions, it has also made it much more difficult for some players to make a living by grinding out the Tour schedule.

Needs Media Support

Under Bivens’ watch, the LPGA Tour has had a tepid, if not icy, relationship with the media.  Bivens, like her counterpart Tim Finchem on the PGA Tour, is wordy in her comments and has had several instances of saying things she may regret.  This makes her the subject of parody and mockery by golf media that challenge her credentials because of her background in newspapers, communications, and marketing – the very experience that won her the LPGA Commissioner job in the first place.

In 2006 at the season opening Fields Open, Bivens claimed that the images and photos produced from any LPGA tournament was also property of the Tour.  When the Associated Press, Sports Illustrated, and USA Today boycotted, that policy was revoked.

Just recently, Scottish writer John Huggan broke the news that the LPGA Tour is looking into conducting background checks on media that want to cover their events.  This would be a practice unique to the LPGA Tour and would likely dramatically hurt the small amount of media attention that the Tour receives today.

While the Tour has actively sought out other avenues to promote their players – like hiring a production company of their own to produce events and spots – the LPGA Tour desperately needs the media to be a partner of theirs, not an enemy.  This may also mean embracing the blogging and Internet community of passionate fans and writers that actually follow the sport.  These amateurs are knowledgeable of the Tour’s players, its past, and could be very instrumental in plugging the sport to the masses. 

It may even be in the best interests of the Tour to hire some of these writers to cover tournaments for LPGA.com, the Tour’s website.  The PGA Tour has turned their website into a destination for fans of the game by making their website one of the most prominent places to find out information about players and tournaments.  By controlling some of the branding and attention paid to the product – like it or not – PGATour.com has been effective in getting the word out there.

Regardless of how the LPGA Tour chooses to engage or grow with the media, it is critical for Bivens and her team to get the focus on the player and not on their gaffes.  It is telling that the LPGA Tour only makes major media impact when something like the English policy is announced, rather than when a player like Lorena Ochoa dominates for much of the season and is one of the great young sporting humanitarians of our time.

No Final Verdict, Yet

Certainly, Bivens’ time as Commissioner has brought several other needed changes like increasing sanctioning fees and tournament emanation fees.  The Tour has secured imaging rights that pay them instead of the other way around.  But there have also been other mistakes in relationships with players, past and present – like Dottie Pepper and Michelle Wie.  She has also come into conflict with the vital community of tournament owners, much of which stems from communication problems and a “my way or the highway” approach in a community that does not take kindly to that tone, and still does not three years later.

The sum of her body of work would receive mixed reviews when taken in as a whole.  The problem is that, often, that body of work is not considered on the whole.  For many on the outside – and some on the inside, the sum of her mistakes as Commissioner outweighs the gains she has achieved financially and has led to calls for her ouster.  She still has many supporters among the players, though, that see she is trying to work in their best interest. 

What will likely tell the fate of Bivens is the outcome of domestic television negotiations.  Current deals with ESPN and Comcast-owner Golf Channel end after the 2009 season.  If Bivens is able to negotiate a consistent cable partner, prominent air times for a series of high-profile events, and other strides for the Tour, then Bivens may be able to salvage her job and continue forward as Commissioner.  If she is not, though, the financial returns she has netted may no long outweigh the steady stream of controversy she has brought the Tour and it may be time for a change.

Ryan Ballengee is the operator of The Golf News Network and host of The 19^th Hole Golf Show and LPGA on GNN.  Having graduated from the University of Maryland in 2004 and 2006, Ballengee brings the perspective of the younger golf fan to the microphone and his columns.  Over the nearly five years he has been broadcasting and writing, Ballengee has developed a reputation for a unique interviewing style that asks both the difficult and fun questions. He can be reached at ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com.