Posted on 03/05/2009 6:31:03 PM PST by Libloather
Wells Fargo has its named removed from golf tournament
Associated Press
Published: Thursday, March 5, 2009
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- One by one, the three men in charge of Charlotte's PGA Tour event came to the podium Thursday and referred to the bank that's on the hook for roughly $3 million a year only as the "title sponsor."
They then unveiled the new logo for the new name of the tournament, the Quail Hollow Championship. No mention of any bank.
"I'm not sure that anybody's been in this position before," tournament director Kym Hougham said after the news conference. "The bank has been a wonderful sponsor for us, and they're still our title sponsor. Their name is just not in it."
In another strange twist to the financial crisis, this is now a tournament where mentioning the title sponsor is banned. Wells Fargo? Forbidden words around Quail Hollow Club. So is Wachovia, the Charlotte-based bank whose logo, colors and name used to adorn nearly everything around the club during tournament week.
How they got here is complicated.
Wells Fargo gobbled up troubled Wachovia late last year and inherited the sponsorship deal, which had been extended through 2014 just last spring. The original plan was to continue calling it the Wachovia Championship.
But Wells Fargo had second thoughts after fellow bank Northern Trust, which has received $1.6 billion in government bailout money, was criticized last month for hosting lavish parties and other events in connection with its sponsorship of a PGA Tour event in suburban Los Angeles.
Wells Fargo, which has received $25 billion in government aid, feared a similar backlash.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldnet.com ...
Give it back and return to the American way...
so now they pay for sponsorship but they have to hide the name? is this a oxymoron? we are so communist!
Wells Fargo was FORCED to take the money....just like many other banks.
However the parties will still go on....
Here, take our money.
Good.. now that you’ve taken our money, we get to tell you what to do.
Got it?
Is this at Quail Hollow Country Club? I worked there in high school...the Kemper Open was held there back then.
They are contractually obligated to sponsor the tournament.
It was more like.....Shut the door to the room. Here, take this money....”We don’t want it. We don’t need it.”....You MUST TAKE it....we want you to buy other failing banks with it. “We don’t want to participate.”....You’re not getting out of this room until you sign this.
YEP...We’re from the gov’t .... and we’re here to help you.
That’s a fact.
Wells Fargo said “No” to the bailout and the Paulson “Made them as offer they can’t refuse”.
“It would be a shame if something should happen to your company and you didn’t take advantage of this generous offer.......”
How does it work that they’re the “title sponsor” but their name doesn’t appear in said title?
Indeed it is, except that the club changed its name from Quail Hollow Country Club to Quail Hollow Club a few years ago. Political correctness, I suspect -- "Country Club" sounds too elitist. Though the club is plenty elite. And the course has been improved tremendously from the old Kemper Open days.
Which they did not ask for.
I once read that in the soviet union advertising was allowed but there was no name branding permitted. Only the fact the product was available.
Sounds like whats happening here. Kinda spooky.
I expect it isn’t out in the country any more either. When my husband-to-be came to visit he commented on all the no parking signs out in the middle of nowhere - they were because if the Kemper, of course. I was a lifeguard and taught swimming as well. The people liked me and I liked them. The staff, on the other hand, treated the pool staff like dirt. ;-) Except for the Maitre d’ - he was cool and had a great accent.
Biden banned golf.
Orwell wrote about Stalinists in 1984 and Animal Farm. We are living under Stalinism.
Certainly true with respect to the location. As Charlotte grew explosively (well, until last year, anyway), Quail Hollow Club has almost become an "in-town" club, almost in the SouthPark orbit. The club, which 30 years ago was on the edge of civilization as far as Charlotteans were concerned, has definitely acquired an "old money" patina.
Your comment about "the people" (by which I assume you mean the club members) liking you, but the clubhouse staff, not so much, is interesting, and very much in line with my experience as a Charlotte native.
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