Frustrated Ginn president: 'I can't do what I can't do'
ORLANDO, Fla. -- In an era when bailouts are seemingly part of every financial discussion, one prominent golf sponsor has taken that term a step further.
It bailed out on the professional tours completely.
Given the dawdling speed of negotiations with two major U.S. golf tours, the president of the struggling Ginn Company said Thursday that he had little choice but to pull the plug on the company's two remaining professional tournaments.
After months of regular contact with the LPGA and PGA tours over the status of the remaining Ginn events operated under the umbrellas of the two circuits, Ginn president Robert Gidel said he couldn't wait any longer for a deal to be struck.
He confirmed that no buyout was negotiated. The company simply walked away.
"Now it's in the hands of others," he said.
Gidel said he harbored no hard feelings toward the tours, but indicated that, in golf terms, the organizations were slow-playing him and had failed to recognize the gravity of the Ginn situation. The tournaments that were mothballed were set to be played in early and mid-April, barely two months away.
Over the past five months, Ginn had already negotiated buyouts of two other multiyear tournament-sponsorship contracts with the LPGA and PGA tours. The latter in particular has a reputation for adopting a hard-line stance with sponsors who have years remaining on their tournament deals.
"It's their business and they have to do what they have to do to protect it, but there's a difference between what you are able to do and what you want to do," Gidel said. "Their position is, these are contracts. But I can't do what I can't do."
Gidel believes it's a tough time to be playing hardball.
"I might do the same thing if I were in their position, but on the other hand, we are in unprecedented times," said Gidel, whose background is in capital markets. "Look at the auto industry, look at the banking industry. We're in times that require strategic and proactive actions, not defensive.
"What gets frustrating at times is that people who are not at the epicenter of the financial and economic crisis lose sight of what's happening to everyone. We're all in the same soup.
"Drawing lines in the sand is not going to solve problems, it's going to create problems."
