Senior Classic nixed for ‘02

Victoria Sun

Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2001 | 9:16 a.m.

Unable to secure a title sponsor for next year's Las Vegas Senior Classic, the Las Vegas Founders Club announced Monday that the 16-year-old tournament will not be back in 2002, although it did not rule out a return in the future.

The announcement was made in conjunction with the Senior PGA Tour's release of its 2002 schedule.

As first reported in the Sun in April during this year's $1.4 million tournament, the event was in serious jeopardy according to several Senior PGA Tour players, who hoped it could be saved.

Tournament manager Charlie Baron met with several potential sponsors that showed interest in the tournament, but no agreement could be reached.

The most interested potential sponsor wanted the tournament moved to the fall instead of the spring. That was not possible because the Invensys Classic, a PGA Tour event, is held in October.

"We said right from the beginning that if there was a sponsor we would have worked with them," Baron said. "Moving to the fall would have been for that sponsor to meet his goals.

"It was like with (former sponsor) Tru-Green. They preferred to be in the spring because that's when their markets are coming on line."

Bruce Crampton was the winner of the first Las Vegas Senior Classic that was held at the Desert Inn Golf Club in 1986.

Over the years, dwindling attendance and changes on the Senior Tour proved detrimental.

Perhaps the biggest factor was the tour's decision to switch from ESPN to CNBC beginning this season. CNBC agreed to a four-year deal in 2000, granting the cable channel which specializes in business news the rights to broadcast 33 events each season.

"Sponsors are now looking at the value of being seen on CNBC versus ESPN," Baron said. "A lot more financial sponsors are involved with the Senior Tour now because of CNBC.

"And boy, over the last couple of weeks, the future is just something people aren't in the position to discuss right now. With all the things going on in the country and the uncertainty of the market, I think you're going to see some other sporting events, not only golf, that are going to get affected."