Nationwide Tour president Bill Calfee sat on the back porch at Black Creek Club, removed his sunglasses, peered over the course and looked to the turning leaves in the distance.
He’s been here before and he knows the scene and the situation: The Chattanooga Classic is a perfect Nationwide Tour event with one exception – it lacks a title sponsor.
He knows that Chattanooga is an ideal market, that the course is of championship caliber, that the operating staff – Friends of the Festival – is large, which makes the job easy for his team, and he knows its value to the greater Chattanooga community.
It’s a tournament he wants to keep on the annual schedule. But he can’t break the bank to keep it here.
“I’d certainly like to have the Chattanooga Classic again,” Calfee said. “I look at the glass as half full.
“A year from now, I hope we’ll look back and laugh and the worries of today.”
The Chattanooga Classic has operated on a year-to-year basis for three straight years and has done so without a title or presenting sponsor which provide financial resources and lifeblood to most of the Nationwide Tour events.
Most relationships have led to limited sponsorship, but not the $250,000 to $300,000 commitment necessary to continue Chattanooga’s only remaining high-profile sporting event.
“I think we’ve got to get one company to step up in a more significant way,” Calfee said. “Most tournaments have a significant title sponsor or presenting sponsor. That’s lacking here. Without that, it’s tough to generate enough revenue to create a viable business and to generate charitable dollars.”
Tournament director Mickey McCamish said it’s 60-40 that the tournament will return next year. Calfee said he’s not good with simplifying the situation down to simple odds.
“I think we’ll be here,” Calfee said. “I think there’s enough interest, and some of that is from new companies, that we’ll figure it out.”
The Volkswagen pursuit, which Calfee assisted with, didn’t result in a title sponsor. Alstom Power had its international officials in town from France earlier this summer. The Electric Power Board and Tennessee Valley Authority have been approached as well, possibly to team with Alstom for some sort of energy triumvirate sponsorship.
“We’ve had financial band-aids,” McCamish said. “For this tournament to continue, a title sponsor needs to step forward. And it can be a partnership and not just one business.”
McCamish said he’s approached companies within the health care industry and other car manufacturers as well about becoming the title sponsor.
None of them have said yes – at least not yet.
“There’s some good momentum, and there are companies that have stepped up a bit that can do more,” Calfee said. “I’ll be talking to prospects [this week]. I think we have a good product to sell, and I think we can make it work.”
McCamish has been working on the title sponsor and keeping the event fresh for visitors and sponsors since assuming the leadership role about 18 months ago.
He has expanded the sponsorship base with Regions Bank, TAG Manufacturing, increasing their donations and KIA becoming the official vehicle of the tournament.
The companies’ alignment with the Chattanooga Classic is a positive step forward, but the Classic still needs more to survive in the long term.
“There has to be that title sponsorship,” McCamish said. “This could be the last Chattanooga Classic.”
McCamish spoke similar words a year ago.
A combination of additional new non-title sponsors and the Friends of the Festival’s $2 dollar increase in Riverbend pin fees – a 2010 pin is free admittance to the tournament – helped allow this year’s tournament to take place.
“It’s a sponsor-driven event and it’s a very high-end event,” Friends of the Festival executive director Chip Baker said. “Riverbend is a shotgun blast and this tournament has a precise target. And this is one of classiest events in the country.”
The target Calfee, Baker and McCamish are aiming for is a title sponsor.