It's Official: Bivens Out as LPGA Commish
Evans made it clear she is an interim commish, with no interest in keeping the job. The LPGA will begin an immediate search for a new commissioner with plans to have someone in in the job "to lead us into 2010 and beyond," said Dawn Hudson, chairman of the Board of Directors.
The LPGA also announced the appointment of Annika Sorenstam as Advisor to the LPGA Board of Directors, responsible for "assisting the association with on-going discussions with tournaments and sponsors." In other words, the LPGA will send Annika out to try to repair strained relations with the folks who make tournaments possible.
The LPGA's announcement can be viewed here.
Bivens' stormy tenure ended after four years at the helm and a couple weeks after more than a dozen of the tour's top names signed a letter calling for her resignation. The letter was produced during a player meeting in the wake of the demise of the Kapalua LPGA tournament, the seventh tour event in the last two years to die.
It was Bivens' aggressive negotiating style - and insistence on increased fees paid by tournament management and sponsors - that the players (and most other LPGA fans and observers) blamed for so many tournament losses.
The LPGA has only 10 tournaments currently under contract for 2010. Acting commissioner Evans - plus Sorenstam and everyone else involved with the tour - now has the job of trying to quickly get the schedule filled out again, probably by going back to tournament owners and sponsors angered by Bivens and offering them breaks on fees, rather than trying to get more money out of them.
LPGA players will probably see decreases in tournament purses in 2010, but they aren't likely to mind so long as the tournament schedule includes roughly the same number of events.
Bivens took over as LPGA commissioner in 2005, replacing Ty Votaw. Votaw had his own issues - an inability to forge a decent television deal, not to mention that he started dating one of the Tour players.
Bivens' charge when she took over was to increase purses and finally get the tour that decent TV deal. And while her style always rubbed some the wrong way - her tenure was never a smooth one, even in better times - Bivens accomplished both of those goals. She also brough the Duramed Futures Tour under LPGA ownership, and gained ownership of the LPGA's title major, the LPGA Championship. And steered the LPGA in the direction of a global golf tour - something that American fans might not appreciate, but that will, in years going forward, open some important doors to overseas business deals and revenue enhancements.
I believe Bivens' term will be much more kindly thought of in years hence than it is now, as some of her moves - especially the rights-fee TV deal with the Golf Channel - may pay off in a growth of interest in women's golf.
Bivens' doom seems to have been a failure to recognize that economic conditions have changed much for the worse since 2005. The global recession-slash-depression is making it very difficult for many companies to keep money invested in the LPGA, which, let's be blunt, is a minor player on the American sports scene.
Bivens failed to adjust, even when rumblings of discontent among tournament organizers and sponsors grew louder, even as some of those sponsors began leaving, even as some tournaments began folding.
Dramatic action was necessary, and that action wound up being Bivens' ouster.
Now, the LPGA must accept some temporary but perhaps large decreases in purse size - it must do whatever it takes, in other words - to field a full schedule of tournaments in 2010, the first year of the new television deal.
Comments
I hope Annika gets more respect from the LPGA fanbase now than during her final year on the tour. There were alot of postings that were less than polite referring to anything from her game, to her appearance and other personal matters. Things got very ugly at times. She handled herself with dignity and class. I hope the fans of the tour can do accordingly. There are a lot of fans for and against individual players or groups of players on the LPGA tour. Sometimes the dialog gets out of hand. This player is arrogant, this player is ugly, these players are divas, these players refuse to practice English, these player refuse to practice golf … I see players of all nationalities working the rope lines, the signing tables and the service projects.
Ladies golf is younger and more diverse than it’s ever been. Almost every tournament has at least 25 of the top 30 money winners. There are also more players that can to win any given week. It’s a double edged sword. There more talent in the field from top to bottom but there are a lot of similar names for the casual fan looking for a few favorites. There are potential new fan bases, revenue streams and markets. Some of that has happened but much of it is still that. Potential. But the game of golf must also respect it’s history. That means giving benefit of the doubt to those sponsors that supported the game for years. Hopefully the LPGA can start mending some of those relationships and generate some good news.
sports medic:
Annika has far many fans than detractors. She always had the largest galleries. She was my favorite player and I still hold out hope that she’ll return to play in a few years.
Annika has huge sponsors and great relationships with them. She is a smart businessperson who knows how to work with people. I’m optimistic that she’ll be able to use her influence to bring some of the sponsors back into the fold.
That being said, the LPGA needs to find new sponsors who appeal to women. Most of their sponsors, strangely, are male oriented. Where are the huge makeup companies and clothing manufacturers?
The first thing I expect to see is that the tour will get back in touch with the Kapalua folks and agree to the one year postponement and get the event in Hawaii back on the 2010 schedule. Then they need to find a sponsor for the opening event at Turtle Bay.
It may be tricky for the LPGA to hire a new qualified commissioner now that it is obvious that a dozen players–professional sportswomen who earn a living playing golf–can band together to oust the person leading the business corporation. As you say, Bivens secured many lucrative deals in her tenure (and increased available child care and health benefits for players, among other things). When she was brought on, the LPGA was actually losing money on the majority of tournaments–hence the push for higher tournament fees, something she was hired to do. I hope she will be remembered for her accomplishments with the tour and wish both she and the LPGA luck with future endeavors.
What a shame that 10 to 15 players, out of a membership of over 200, can submit a letter and get the Commissioner out of her job! – Are the players/signers of the letter concerned about the future of the LPGA, or concerned about some personal (financial) interests? – I am just an avid LPGA fan, but picked up some info by listening to discussions/small talk in the right places. – One of the players (signer of the letter) has a husband who was trying to get LPGA to schedule a major LPGA event at a specific golf course. This LPGA player’s husband would have received a “bonus” if the LPGA event was scheduled at that golf course. In short time after being notified that the LPGA event would not be held at that golf course, the LPGA player (and her LPGA friends) met and discussed/prepared/signed a letter requesting removal/resignation of the LPGA Commissioner. Are these plaayers concerned about the best interests of the LPGA, or did I smell something?
Bivens was a disaster. She was a one issue crusader for higher purses, feeling that the LPGA should be treated financially just like the PGA tour. Maybe in some ideal world that would be the case, but it isn’t reality. Instead of making steady progress, she was dogmatic and unyielding. Mix in some half-baked ideas and poor people skills and its amazing she was there as long as she was.
Rather than being impeded by being the first female LPGA commissioner, I think she was aided by it. A male commissioner with the same history of failure would have been gone long ago.
Carolyn Bivens is an experienced and dedicated professional who was committed to making the LPGA better for the players. How short sighted these women are and what a stab in the back to someone who was fighting for them. One report indicated former U.S. Open champ Hollis Stacy flew in from Denver to try to talk young players into their senses. Stacy feels that without Bivens’ aggressive approach, LPGA players will forever be second-class citizens. A huge deal with the golf channel, a multi-million dollar deal with a Korean cable company (the biggest contract in the history of the LPGA) and so many other accomplishments that Biven’s can feel extremely proud of her time as Commissioner. Those players should kick themselves in the butt.
Bivens decided to finally speak to the press, and her quotes to the NY Times say it all. In short, she states that the problem with the LPGA is its charter, one that requires active players to serve on its board.
“Being an active player and trying to govern an organization don’t go together,” she said. “They are absolutely counterintuitive. They fight each other.”
That’s bull. No one has a greater incentive to both raise purse sizes AND have a full schedule than an active player. Bivens is essentially complaining that she was precluded from stacking the Board with cronies and that people with real skin in the game had the power to sack her.
That’s as it should be. Bivens was unable and unwilling to adapt to the economics of her time and to reconcile raising economic conditions while keeping a vibrant schedule. She was doctrinaire and intolerant of contrary viewpoints. Ultimately, her complaint is that she lacked the institutional ability to be the dictator she aspired to be.
She had her accomplishments but the cost was high. The Tour needed change, and the players should be credited for standing up for themselves and their sport.
And one more thing, Bivens should have pressured the USGA to give exemptions to Wie and Gulbis for the Open. To prove that point (made on this blog by many), take a look at this story.
http://www.mcall.com/sports/all-uswomensopen-gulbis-071309,0,493429.story
Hopefully, the LPGA will steady the ship now.
Donald Trump gives some inside scoop on what was the ADT Championship and how awful it was to deal with Carolyn Bivens. You can see from The Donald, her negotiating style was completely mental.
http://blogs.golf.com/presstent/2009/07/trump-says-bivens-did-a-horrible-job.html
Interesting link about Trump. Trump is a pathological liar, so not sure how much of that I believe. But even pathological liars sometimes stumble on the truth, and I think The Donald did when he said this: “What happened was that in bad times, she pushed too hard.” Simple as that.
Is Donald Trump lacking in publicity lately? He felt the need to put in his opinion of the LPGA’s former commissioner? Who cares what Trump thinks about women’s golf? Bivens did a lot of good for the LPGA and the players will soon realize that they will not see an increase in benefits, TV deals, or purses like those they received under Bivens’ negotiations anytime in the near future.
Thanks Robert for that link to Donald Trump. After reading Trumps remarks I have to say: “For a man who has been in numerous bankruptcy proceedings (and a few divorce proceedings), Donald should know a loser by looking in the mirror. Commissioner Bivens negotiated and signed two multi-million dollar contracts for LPGA within the past 4 months
Why are we dancing around the elephant in the room?
Thirty or forty of the women who make the cut each week are good golfers – but few can communicate in English. That hurts interviews – and a chance to communicate with American fans. It means a very uncomfortable Pro-Am experience. And it cuts down attendance at the event.
Bivens alienated the committee persons who run these tournaments with her high-handed demands for unrealistic funding.
How many of the ten tournaments that are left in the 2010 schedule would she have been able to hold onto if she still ran the LPGA?
The players had to act. Their organization was being destroyed by Bivens.