Ken, They did, in fact, sign MONY as a sponsor. See the PR dated Feb 9 on their website. The sponsorship was described as a 3-year sponsorship valued at $750,000. At the time, it seemed like a good, but fairly modest first step. I say fairly modest because at the time they were also saying they would hold 3 tournaments in 1998, 4 (I believe) in 1999, and 8 (I believe), in 2000. So, the $750,000 divided by the number of tournaments did not amount to a whole lot per tournament. Also, the fact that the sponsorship was said to be "valued at $750,000" suggested to me this sponsorship did not mean $750,000 in cash was being forked over to CSGC, but some of it at least was in return for some service provided by MONY.
They also did, in fact, announce a deal with ESPN to televise their September tournament. Unfortunately, there is no September tournament, so who knows what the status of that deal is?
The way I see it, after a fairly promising start (landing MONY as a sponsor, and getting some decent names for the first tournament), CSGC has been a big disappointment since. No new sponsors, no tournaments. The comment by a previous poster that it is taking longer than expected to sign sponsors is obviously an understatement. Remember when Damien was at the Masters to land some big fish?
I think the players who participated in the first tournament did so out of respect for David Marr Senior, who had recently passed away at the time. I doubt whether we will see any more tournaments with name players playing for peanuts. So, obviously, if the company is to succeed, they need some more big sponsors.
The weak stock price and low volume do not suggest there is much to get excited about on that front, either. |
