Will LPGA return to Prattville?
'The will is there' to extend deal, sponsor says
Will LPGA return to Prattville? 'The will is there' to extend deal, sponsor says Check out this story on montgomeryadvertiser.com: http://on.mgmadv.com/270GIx3
Retail Roundup
Brad Harper, Montgomery Advertiser Published 1:39 p.m. CT May 6, 2016 | Updated 2:05 p.m. CT May 6, 2016
There are plenty of smiles and handshakes happening behind the scenes this weekend while the crowd cheers on the LPGA pros in Prattville.
Yokohama Tire resurrected the tour stop at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail's Capitol Hill facility three years ago. They're now in the final year of their sponsorship and no plans have been announced yet to bring it back. But smiles don't fade when the subject comes up.
"The will is there" to extend the deal, Yokohama executive Fred Koplin said this week. "We're in the process of negotiating an extension.
"The folks here have been fantastic. We're just trying to work out the numbers so that it becomes a win-win for everybody. It's just taking a little while."
A different kind of win
Koplin started the company's sports partnership program in 2007, and they've had deals with NFL, NBA, MLB and college football teams. They even sponsor two racetracks.
One of their most prominent deals is their global sponsorship of soccer power Chelsea, which includes a Yokohama logo splashed across the front of the team's official jerseys. That's a level of brand awareness that's tough to buy, Koplin said.
"It'll be long past (coach Nick) Saban before the Crimson Tide has Yokohama on the jerseys," Koplin laughed.
The Prattville LPGA sponsorship is a little different. The company uses it as an opportunity to meet with their key customers at a nationally prominent - but relaxed - event.
"It's kind of a tired cliché that business happens on the golf course, but it's darn true," he said. "The LPGA players are so nice, so outgoing, so receptive, no matter how unguarded some of our sales people and customers are. They just kind of roll with it.
"We've had very happy foursomes on the pro-am. Then, as the week goes on, it's an opportunity for our salespeople to play golf with their key customers again."
'They feel like they're home'
Sun Belt Golf President John Cannon chalks part of that up to the setting itself. Cannon said he talked with some of the LPGA players at a dinner early in the week. They spent the past few weeks going through Dallas and San Francisco, before arriving in Prattville – where there's no traffic to fight, their rooms are nearby and they're greeted with Southern hospitality.
"When they get here, they feel like they're home," Cannon said.
Koplin said that feel extends to the company's on-course events, an aspect that's especially important this year. A wave of new senior managers started at Yokohama on April 1, and they have a long list of people all over the world they need to meet. Here, they can do it in one place.
"This is kind of speed dating," Koplin said. "They can spend 15 minutes at a party with this customer. They can spend 15 minutes at a dinner with another customer, and 15 minutes at the skills challenge with another customer. They'll play golf with someone on Wednesday, and they'll play golf with someone on Thursday.
"You add it all up, and that's some quality time with our customers in a fun setting."
Golf drives area's growth
Cannon remembers driving into Prattville during the construction of the Capitol Hill facility.
"You pulled off the interstate and you had a Holiday Inn, a Shoney's and Christmas tree farm," he said.
Now, Cobbs Ford Road is crowded with retail and restaurants. Prattville and Millbrook added 3 million square feet of non-residential space from 1997 to 2014 and tri-county tourism spending jumped by $500 million in that time, according to Mark Fagan of Jacksonville State University.
All of that growth can't be credited to Capitol Hill alone, much less the LPGA tournament, but area tourism experts say it has had a huge impact. In fact, the Montgomery area has had the best hotel occupancy rate of any metro area in Alabama since around the time the Prattville tournament was revived.
Several blocks of rooms at the Renaissance Hotel & Spa in Montgomery were filled by people associated with the tournament this week, a hotel spokeswoman said. Meanwhile, a Home2 Suites is under construction near the golf course, where it will become the fourth Prattville hotel to set up shop next to the facility.
That type of growth helps steer decisions about RTJ and its facilities, Cannon said.
"What we do can't just be good for golfers," he said. "It has to be good for everyone in the state."
Prattville's LPGA tournaments average nearly $10 million in annual economic impact
$500 million increase in tourism spending in Autauga, Elmore and Montgomery counties since 1997
Montgomery had the best hotel occupancy rate of all Alabama metro areas for the past three years
Source: RTJ, Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce
Signage promoting the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Prattville, Ala., on Thursday May 5, 2016. (Photo: Mickey Welsh / Advertiser)
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