This comes from John Ourand of Sports Business Daily/Journal via the Big Lead. This paves the way for ESPN to become the exclusive home of the Open Championship meaning the end of ABC’s 50 year association with the Royal & Ancient Golf Club.
ESPN has been recently bidding for events and seeking to keep them on the Alleged Worldwide Leader instead of outsourcing them to ABC. This week, ESPN submitted a bid to the Bowl Championship Series which would put the entire BCS on cable only.
If the R&A decides to sign with ESPN, the cable exclusive coverage of the Open Championship would begin in 2010.
EDITED TO ADD (3:03 p.m.) – Turner Sports has sent this statement.
Turner Sports Declines to extend TV rights with the R&A for The Open
Turner’s 7-year deal with the R & A culminates with TNT’s coverage of the
2009 British Open Championship from Turnberry, Scotland, July 16 -19
Statement from David Levy – President of Turner Sports
“We are disciplined in our approach to negotiating programming rights. While we were unable to reach terms on future rights that made economic sense for our company, we respect and value the R&A and our partnership of the past six years, and look forward to TNT’s final year of covering The Open.”
Turner Sports will air approximately 28 hours of the 2009 Open Championship on TNT during its four days of coverage. TNT will also continue to air approximately 17 hours of golf’s final major, the PGA Championship, with this year’s event taking place August 12-16, from Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, MN. TNT will also air in 2009 the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, the toughest event in the sport to qualify for with only that year’s major winners receiving an automatic invitation. The 2009 PGA Grand Slam of Golf will be held at the Port Royal Golf Course on Oct. 20 & 21. Turner Sports also operates and manages two of golf’s premier Web sites in PGATour.com and PGA.com.
Turner Sports still has plenty of sports properties and I thought it did a good job in covering the Open during its tenure. It will use 2009 to say goodbye to the Open.
