Stanford Financial: Another sponsorship

disaster looming up for US PGA

FROM THE CBS SPORTS.COM WEBSITE
By Steve Elling, Senior Writer
As the United States' economy continues to spiral down the commode, yet another potential sponsorship disaster looms for the US PGA Tour.
Business offices of Stanford Financial, which sponsors the event in Memphis and has the longest sponsorship deal in place with the tour, were raided earlier this week by federal officers alleging that the company has committed $8 billion in fraud.
Outside company offices in Houston, federal officials hung a sign reading, "The company is still in operation but under the management of a receiver," signaling that assets have possibly been frozen.
Stanford last fall also signed on to host the season-ending LPGA event, the Stanford Financial Tour Championship, in Houston. It was unclear how the LPGA event would be affected.
Stanford and Frys, an electronics firm, are signed with the US Tour as title sponsors through 2016, the longest-tenured pacts in place as the tour tries to shore up events and sponsors that have been pole-axed by the economy. The tour has over a dozen sponsors in the crippled financial, banking and auto sectors.
It has created a week-by-week examination that has proven embarrassing for both the sponsors and tour at times as entities like Buick and Chrysler, which both are subsisting on hand-outs from US taxpayers, have attempted to justify the expenses of staging golf tournaments while entertaining top brass and clients.
US Tour officials acted quickly to assure the public that the Stanford St. Jude Championship in Memphis event, scheduled for June 11-14, the week before the U.S. Open, would still take place. Tour protocol requires title sponsors to produce a certificate proving that dedicated funds are in place for upcoming tournaments.
"We have no comment regarding the situation with Allen Stanford and certain of his companies at this time," US PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said in a news release.
"However, we want to categorically state that the PGA Tour event in Memphis will be played as scheduled this year."
It was unclear how the federal raids would affect the sponsorship deals Stanford has with three prominent players on two tours -- Vijay Singh, Camilo Villegas and Morgan Pressel.