Columnist Victoria Sun: Las Vegas sponsor search continuing

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, June 12, 2002 | 9:04 a.m.

Victoria Sun is a Las Vegas Sun sportswriter. She can be reached at victoria@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4078.

Invensys Classic tournament manager Charlie Baron wasn't caught off guard when Invensys, the London-based company which specializes in the management of production technology and energy resources, did not renew its sponsorship of Las Vegas' annual PGA Tour stop for next year.

This year's event will be held Oct. 9-13 at the TPC at Summerlin, TPC at the Canyons and Southern Highlands Golf Club.

Since 2000, the first year of Invensys' sponsorship, the total purse has grown from $4.25 million to $4.5 million last year and $5 million this year.

Already, Baron and the Las Vegas Founders' Club have begun searching for a new sponsor.

"We're in the mode now of getting presentations out and working with the PGA Tour," Baron said. "Something like this doesn't happen over night.

"We're fine this year and we'll continue to search over the next few months and see what the market bears."

Baron said this situation was unlike what happened with Las Vegas' foundering Senior PGA Tour event that was cancelled this year because a sponsor could not been found.

"The regular tour is very strong," Baron said. "If Invensys had called and said they wanted to pull out this year, it would have been a concern.

"But they're an industrial company which uses sports to market its brand in a certain way. When we got involved with them three years ago, the thought was the life of the deal wasn't going to be a five-year or 10-year agreement.

"We're going to work on it now and hopefully we'll have something in the next three, four or five months."

Baron hopes he will be able to find a sponsor willing to commit to a four-year agreement, the length of the current TV contract.

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