Now that's a TV contract!

The LPGA and Golf Channel have signed a 10-year agreement, meaning that nearly all Tour events will be aired on GC beginning in 2010.

More on this announcement after my enthusiasm calms enough for me to read the entire press release.

UPDATE:  First off, this sentence from the press release is huge:

GOLF CHANNEL will carry three- and four-round coverage of domestic events, including one major championship, and international feeds of LPGA global events, as well as early round coverage of events that will have weekend coverage on other networks. (italics mine) 

This means more coverage, period.  No more events being carried by NBC or CBS on the weekend with nothing on Thursday or Friday.  No more events in Asia or Mexico with absolutely NO television in America at all.  This doesn't happen until 2010 but I'm already salivating.

Bivens made this statement:

"Our long-term goal has been to establish a consistent platform for LPGA viewership, improve the production quality of our telecasts and enhance the season-long promotion of our players and events." 

I was writing about the need for a TV "home" for the LPGA nearly three years ago (no link because that post said a few other things that weren't so brilliant) and I'm happy that the Commissioner shared that view.  Another thing she said that stood out:

"It is not insignificant to the LPGA that we are the first stand alone women's sports organization domestically to be paid a rights fee. We're not going to talk about any of the details of that, but it is ground breaking." 

If you've read Mulligan Stu's post on TV and the LPGA, you know that the Tour has been paying the broadcasters for most domestic TV time throughout its history.  I doubt that practice has been completely eliminated (we'll have to wait for those details) but "ground breaking" sounds pretty darned good for the LPGA.

I'll be honest with you - I fully expect for Golf Channel to give the Tour a back-seat to their PGA coverage.  It would be a terrible business decision if they didn't.  There will be plenty of times (especially on Thursday and Friday) that the LPGA will air on tape-delay because of a PGA conflict.  You take the not-quite-so-good with the good, in my book.  I assume that the Champions Tour might get short-changed a bit on airtime and probably the Nationwide Tour will as well.

I wasn't sure that the LPGA negotiation team was going to get this done.  Given the circumstances of the Tour and the American economy, I didn't know that ANY negotiator could.  Until we get all the details, we can't judge exactly how well they did here but coming up with as much as they have let out so far is to be commended.  Good work, madame Commissioner.