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It's Official: Giant Eagle LPGA Will Not Return
"By Dan O'BrienYOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The Youngstown stop in the Ladies Professional Golf Tournament, a summer highlight of Mahoning Valley sports more than a decade, is history. Mahoning Valley Sports Charities, whose board of trustees directed profits from the tournament to 60 local charities, may not be far behind.At a press conference this morning, Tom Hollern, chairman of Mahoning Valley Sports Charities, blamed the decline in local sponsorships and increased operating costs of the tournament. Those factors led the organization's trustees to discontinue the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic, he said. The tournament held earlier this year at Squaw Creek Country Club in Vienna was the last."The LPGA will not be coming back to Youngstown next year," Hollern said. "Expenses have been going up and revenues have been going down. That can't continue."A proposal is also on the table to dissolve Sports Charities, a community-based organization charged with organizing the event and approaching sponsors for support. Revenues from the tournament go to area charities. One of the tournament's major sponsors, Giant Eagle, declined to participate in next year's event, although Hollern said the supermarket chain's decision did not in itself force the tournament out of the Valley. Hollern, area president of National City Bank in Youngstown, said the annual budget for the golf match has grown as the Mahoning Valley economy remained lethargic. Thus, many sponsors re evaluated their finances and chose to exit the tournament."The tournament had a budget of $3 million," Hollern explained. When Giant Eagle first stepped in as chief sponsor, it underwrote about 30%. In recent years, that share had grown to 50% because of the inability to attract new sponsors while retaining those who signed on.Sports Charities tried to find another chief sponsor, Hollern said, to no avail.The purse was also growing, Hollern said. When Sports Charities organized the tournament 12 years ago, the total purse was $500,000. After the first year, it was raised to $1 million and in the last three years, the purse has stood at $1.2 million. "We felt it would take a $1.5 million purse in order to go forward," he said.At the same time, revenues declined, Hollern stated. Sports Charities expects to donate $360,000 to 60 or so local charities this year from money raised entirely from the golf tournament. 2004 turned out to be the first year where total contributions were lower than the previous year.Over the past three or four years, the tournament has enabled Sports Charities to raise about $460,000 annually for local charities. Over the 12 years, $4.2 million was generated. Sports Charities, however, has some $1.1 million in reserve funds, Hollern said. That money will most likely be transferred to a local foundation and held in trust until it can be distributed to local charities that support children and educational endeavors."The impact on the charities is not insignificant," Hollern said of the loss of the tournament. Other auxiliary businesses that benefited from the LPGA will also be affected, "but there's no way to measure it," he added.The loss of the LPGA will also affect Hollern personally; he has worked with Sports Charities since its inception. "We've had some wonderful golfers come through here," he reflects.The LPGA's presence in the Mahoning Valley began in 1990 as the Phar-Mor in Youngstown -- the result of Phar-Mor Inc.'s former president and chief executive officer Michael I. "Mickey" Monus' efforts to make Youngstown a stop on the LPGA. After Monus was accused of fraud in 1992 -- he was later convicted -- and Phar-Mor dropped its sponsorship, Sports Charities was formed and the golf match continued as the Youngstown-Warren Classic. In 1997, the tournament took the name of the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic and continued through this year."The LPGA wanted to work with us and we feel bad that the tournament won't be played here next year," Hollern said. "I think The LPGA event may have just run its course."Contact Dan O'Brien at [email protected]"