Hound Dog LPGA: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Login-facebook
New Blog: The Nova Blog for Villanova Fans!

And I Thought Bobby Ginn Was Bad...

Over at Waggle Room, Ryan has been documenting the S.E.C. investigation into Robert Allen Stanford of Stanford Financial Group and the story has been all over the news so I won't go into the details here.  This situation affects the LPGA greatly so I would be remiss if I didn't post my thoughts on it.

As the Ginn situation deteriorated over the last 12 months, I and a few others pulled no punches about the Tour diving in headfirst with a sponsor whose house was built on a foundation of sand.  At least in that example, the sponsor was only guilty of over-speculation and poor judgment (in my eyes, not in a court of law).  Mr. Stanford has not been convicted of any crimes but the evidence made public so far doesn't bode well for him or his company.  It also doesn't bode well for the Tour, with its season-ending tournament in Houston being underwritten by this corporation-under-fire.

The LPGA doesn't have the luxury to turn away ANY potential sponsors, even in the best of economic times.  It wouldn't be prudent or polite for Ms. Bivens and her administration to insist on a full disclosure of practices from each company they partner with.  Therefore it also wouldn't be prudent to condemn her or the Tour (or Morgan Pressel, for that matter) for partnering with Stanford Financial.  If you must, be sure to also condemn the PGA Tour for the same infraction.

One major Bivens M.O. of growing the LPGA Tour has been to increase purse sizes by bringing in higher dollar sponsors to force the bar higher for the legacy events.  The Ginn and Stanford situations are an unfortunate by-product of that strategy and it remains to be seen whether the net will be a gain or loss.  It's not as simple as calling Stanford "strike two" on Bivens because the purse increases and the new TV deals are also by-products of her strategy but you wouldn't be out-of-line to call it "a second black eye".

So what happens now?  I'm going to assume that if the Houston event is held at all, it won't have the currently announced name attached to it.  Maybe one of the oil companies based in that area whose '08 fourth-quarter profits make the $9.2 billion CD fraud scheme that Stanford is accused of running look like a drop in the bucket will step up for us.  Or maybe monkeys will fly out of...the sky.

0 recs  |  Comment 1 comment |

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Display:

maybe a google search?

Certainly it’s too much to expect them to have read Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place

:

http://mlyhlss.blogspot.com/2009/02/stanford-financial-follies.html

I read it, and it didn’t do me any good.

by The Constructivist on Feb 20, 2009 10:34 PM PST reply actions   0 recs

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Welcome to Hound Dog LPGA! Whether you're a casual follower of women's golf or a longtime fan, drop by often to check out what's new! Contact me directly at hounddog.lpga@yahoo.com
Start posting on Hound Dog LPGA »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

Connect_with_facebook

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recent FanPosts

Cat_small
LPGA Announces tournament in Malaysia with Sime Darby
Cat_small
My top 30 LPGA golfers for 2010
Cat_small
Ron Sirak's top 30 LPGA Golfers for 2010
Cat_small
The Gift that keeps giving- LPGA, IMG file counterclaim in SBS lawsuit
Cat_small
Hana Bank officially back on the 2010 LPGA Schedule
Small
Frankenstat Rankings - Version1.0
Cat_small
Match play to return to LPGA in 2010
Small
More Frankenstat Rankings
070519_1202_0001_small
The Best on the LPGA w/o a Major
070519_1202_0001_small
The Best on the LPGA with 7 or More Wins

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >

SBNation.com Recent Stories

Tiger Woods +1 updates

Report: Tiger Woods Likely Will Return Next Month For The Masters

via www.swamppolitics.com link

Tiger Reportedly Hires Ari Fleischer To Handle PR Strategy For His Return To Golf

Tiger Woods 2010 link

Could Tiger Make His Return At Bay Hill In Late March?

More from SBNation.com >


Managers

Hound-large_small hound dog

N9102048_32253009_9304_small jamie.r.saengsawang