Economic downturn forces Barclays to quit Scottish open on the European Tour – Golf news
With the worsening economic situation in the Euro Zone, things have started to go down for almost everything with the European Tour suffering the biggest jolt of the year, when The Barclays announced yesterday that it is pulling out of the multi-million
sponsorship of the Scottish Open.
The company has reasoned that the current economic situation does not allow it to extend hefty sponsorships to the European Tour event with which it has been associated for the past nine years.
The European Tour and its chief executive, George O’Grady, have vowed to tackle the situation and seem confident that they will be able to find a new sponsor for one of the most revered events on the tour calendar.
Given the present circumstances where Greek Debt has triggered a new economic slide and while the whole European Union is struggling to contain the fall out, it will be anything but easy to find a sponsor who would be willing to stand up to the £3m prize
fund. Not just that, the fall out of the broken deal is certain to have dire repercussions on the remaining tour sponsors.
This year’s Scottish Open was held at Castle Stuart, one of the prestigious Links Golf course after 15 years at Loch Lomond. The players, as well the sponsors hailed the decision to move the venue and the field as this year’s event was one of the strongest
ever in history, with three top ranking players in the world.
George O’Grady, chief executive of The European Tour, said, “We thank Barclays for their vision and leadership.”
O’Grady further added, “The combination of a world-class title, prime date in the week immediately before The Open Championship and stunning location in Scotland – the Home of Golf - make this a particularly attractive proposition and we look forward to
securing the future of the Scottish Open with a new sponsor.”
It will be interesting to see whether the tour comes out successful in luring an equally stable sponsor given the fact that Irish Open has already lost its’ sponsor and this year’s event was heavily funded from European Tour’s own reserves.
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