Fort Smith Classic director optimistic about funding issue

Patricia Brown has less than 90 days to raise about $200,000 to fully fund The Fort Smith Classic.

Brown, director of the PGA Tour-sanctioned professional golf event now in its 13th year, spoke Wednesday (March 24) to the Fort Smith Rotary Club about the challenges and opportunities of the June 14-20 golf event that includes community concerts, a breast cancer awareness day (Pink on the Links) and a Junior Pro-Am event.

The most prominent challenge is money.

After Rheem dropped its sponsorship several years ago, Little Rock-based Stephens Inc. stepped in with $225,000 to keep the Nationwide Tour event at Hardscrabble Country Club in Fort Smith. However, Stephens has pulled that support back to $50,000 a year. The city of Fort Smith and Sebastian County donate about $50,000 in cash and in-kind services.

Brown said the event is about $200,000 short of what it will take to fund event operations, and has 84 days to fill that shortfall.

“We’ve all got to step up if we want to keep it in Fort Smith,” Brown told the group.

Why keep it in Fort Smith?

Along with the prestige of being just one of about 100 cities in the U.S. affiliated with a PGA-affiliated event, the weeklong events and golf built around the classic bring at least 400 players, their families and Nationwide officials to the area. The economic impact of only the 400 is conservatively estimated (estimated by The City Wire) at around $850,000 for the week. However, Brown said the Classic this year will conduct a professional survey of players, officials and visitors to determine a more official economic impact.

“It’s important to really know what the impact is. When I talk to them (sponsors, potential sponsors) about the impact, I think we should be confident of that number … to know it’s not too high or low,” Brown said in an interview after her comments to Rotary.

Efforts by Brown and Classic volunteers to address the funding issue include sponsorships that range from $150 to $500 and a Dancing Fore a Cause event that will see local “celebrities” — including University of Arkansas at Fort Smith Chancellor Paul Beran — dance in a competition similar to the Dancing with the Stars format.

The Classic has been successful in launching new events. The Pink on the Links day was voted the Best Practice of 2009 by the Nationwide Tour, and three other tournaments in the Tour have added Pink on the Links to their events, Brown said.

Another new aspect of the Classic is a plan to help area non-profits raise money. Area charities and non-profit organizations can register with the Classic to sell the $20 tickets to the event. The non-profit will get 100% of the ticket price for each ticket sold by a person using a form tied to the non-profit. For example, Brown explained Wednesday, if the Rotary Club has just 100 of its members buy a $20 ticket using a Rotary-tagged form, the club will get a $2,000 check.

Brown said she is optimistic the funding issue will be resolved. She said the Classic board of directors and volunteers are aggressively involved in several efforts to secure the funding.