GM Dumps Tiger

Filed in archive Golf Business on November 24, 2008

Courtesy: autoblog.com

8 million dollars. Car companies spend that on Super Bowl advertising. Or flying executives around the country on corporate jets.

They dish out cash like that for fancy smoke-and-mirrors displays at auto shows around the planet.

But 8 million bucks was a pill too big for struggling General Motors to swallow and, today, they axed the last year of their 5 year deal with Tiger Woods worth a total of 40 million.

Frankly, I've never understood why GM would sign Tiger to push Buick, a brand that is associated with old retired white guys.

But, then, that's why General Motors would pay a marketing company millions - to figure out the un-figureable, so to speak.

This is a sign of the "new times" where deflation is gaining steam and consumers have zipped their wallets shut, where economies are grinding to a halt, commodity prices are plunging (gas prices in the U.S. have fallen for 68 straight days, now) and the layoffs are just beginning, folks.

And it is just the tip of the iceberg for professional golfers.

The LPGA is reducing the number of tournaments it plays next year. Tour boss, Carolyn Bivens says the prize money will drop from over 60 million to around 55 million next year.

The LPGA, unlike the men's PGA Tour, is a truly global golf show. How will the PGA Tour avoid the same fate or worse when it depends so heavily on American companies?

The simple answer is it won't.

Golf tours and playing professionals will be seeing sponsorships flying out the window in the weeks and months to come.

It's the new reality.