Leveraging Ochoa's big win
As mulligan notes, Lorena Ochoa won in a landslide for the AP Sports Woman of the Year. Here is an article about her victory, which includes this bit of trivia:
Since I am eager to promote women's golf, here's an open plea to the LPGA to promote heavily Ochoa's new status as the reigning queen of golf (and also perhaps promote a friendly rivalry with the deposed queen, Annika). Among other events, the LPGA ought to try to sponsor some special award ceremony with the PGA to get Tiger and Lorena together for some photo-ops.Tiger Woods was voted AP Male Athlete of the Year, the first time since 1993 that the male and female athletes came from the same sport (Michael Jordan-Sheryl Swoopes in basketball). And it was the first time since Babe Zaharias and Byron Nelson in 1945 that golfers swept the AP athlete awards.
Along with Wie and Gulbis and Creamer and Webb, the Q ratings for a large group of women golfers are likely as high now as they will ever be. And yet, the LPGA has only 5 events scheduled for the first three months of 2007 (the men have 13 events during this ideal time to promote golf). I think the LPGA ought to look for ways ASAP to create a few signature events with their superstars during the lean sports months of February and early March.
4 Comments:
Since I don't know the cost of sponsoring a LPGA tournament, my comment may be slightly daft, but lets assume it is over $1,000,000. For any large company who has not already made a full committment to being a LPGA sponsor, it isn't likely they are going to pony up for somne small tournament (unless it can be in their backyard, and they can advertise it so much it drives the locals mad...like Long's Drugs started last year).
So then you are looking at a medium to small company, where $1,000,000 represents a large chunk of their advertising budget, and for most companies, putting most of their budget into a female sport where most of the viewers are male seems chancy at best.
All in all, the reason the first three months are spotty is that it is hard work getting a sponsor for a LPGA tournament. Heck, even one of the PGA tournaments doesn't have a sponsor yet. The LPGA had a far more interesting year last year for viewers, but it doesn't seem to make it any easier for them to get sponsors.
I think the LPGA should take a leading edge approach by creating more suspense in their events by changing the way they approach them. For example, by creating a post season or by shortening their events and allowing for the under dogs to have more of a chance. Just a thought!
You really need a Maria Sharapova type to take the LPGA to the next level. Or if you had someone with super charisma like Tiger.
Lorena Ochoa is a great player, but she's pretty quiet. Natalie Gulbis has the looks and charm, but she needs a victory probably more than Michelle Wie does at her age.
Think Ochoa enjoys eating at Chipotle? They have excellent food. I personally enjoy their Carnitas Fajita Burrito. Muy delicioso!!!
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