Classic planning

The SEC women’s basketball tournament moved on to bigger locations.

The Southern Conference decided that three straight years of its basketball tournament in Asheville is better than giving McKenzie Arena another go after the end of this upcoming season.

And the NCAA decided to uproot the FCS championship game from Finley Stadium and move it to a suburb of Dallas.

All of the departures have been blows to the Scenic City’s economy and national visibility.

Yet the PGA Tour has stood by her side.

The Chattanooga Classic will return to Black Creek Club for its eighth year Oct. 4-10 with Nationwide Tour golfers — future PGA Tour stars — attempting to earn their way into tournaments with Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen.

“The Classic brings national and international attention to Chattanooga,” said Classic tournament director Mickey McCamish. “Unlike the NCAA, the PGA Tour has stood by us. They didn’t pick up and run. They see the potential here.

“Unlike the NCAA, the PGA Tour sees the value here in Chattanooga.”

But there may come a day — perhaps next year, the year after or even five years from now — that the Chattanooga Classic could join the list of featured events that were here but went away.

The Classic is on a year-to-year contract with the PGA Tour and was one of the last events confirmed for its 2010 schedule. Yet McCamish already has been planning for the 2011 event by massaging sponsors, including international representatives from Alstom Power who were recently here.

Alstom, a France-based energy company that sponsors the French Open on the European Tour, recently had its top officials in Chattanooga for ceremonies surrounding the opening of a plant.

“That was the first time we had a chance to meet the officials from Paris,” McCamish said. “We’ve known the people locally, but for the first time the people from Paris had a chance to meet us and see what sort of week we do.

“Because there is an association between golf and their corporate culture, golf was part of the ribbon-cutting event. It was a very successful day.”

Only four of the PGA Tour’s original “Class AAA” tournaments are around — in Boise, Idaho; Wichita, Kan.; Springfield, Mo., and Knoxville.

The Knoxville Open almost vanished from the schedule this year. It was originally scheduled for June 10-13, but the PGA Tour moved the dates back to Aug. 23-29 and instituted its own employee, Patrick Nichol, as tournament director to save it.

In early June, the Knoxville News Sentinel stepped up to be the title sponsor.

“The PGA Tour believes in Knoxville and we think we have a good future here,” Nationwide Tour president Bill Calfee said in early June. “Supporters are aware the tournament has experienced some challenges the last several months.”

Chattanooga Classic officials have been heavily pursuing Alstom Power as title sponsor. Having a title sponsor in place, especially if it’s willing to pony up the money to televise the event, could secure the event in Chattanooga for several years, perhaps a decade or more.

Friends of the Festival wined and dined the Alstom officials during a golf outing at Black Creek. More than 100 officials gathered for lunch there, and that sent local representatives in search of 21 sets of rental clubs, included three left-handed sets.

“We put together a full program that brought (PGA Tour veteran) Bobby Clampett in,” McCamish said. “Bobby was chosen because his name is of French origin, he’s played in the French Open and he’s well known by Alstom.

“That showed the type of the organization that Friends of the Festival is.”

Friends of the Festival, which operates Riverbend and dozens of other Chattanooga entertainment events, decided this year to give free admission to the golf tournament for anybody with a Riverbend pin — two Chattanooga events for one price.

“The big thing we’ve done to bolster attendance is giving free entrance to those with Riverbend pins,” Friends of the Festival executive director Chip Baker said. “There are probably 100,000 pins floating around, and even if 10 percent use them, that’s a big boost to attendance.”