MB Civic

WE ARE CALLING FOR A BOYCOT OF ALL SPONSORS and TV coverage OF

Augusta National Golf Club, located in Augusta, Georgia,
host to the annual Masters Tournament, one of the four major championships in professional golf, and the only major played each year at the same course

No blacks allowed before 1990

Chairman Billy Payne had harsh words for Tiger Woods, saying the world’s top-ranked golfer disappointed everyone with his sex scandals and did not live up to expectations as a role model

No women allow still
Augusta National and Chairman Hootie Johnson are widely known for a disagreement beginning in 2002 with Martha Burk, then chair of the Washington-based National Council of Women’s Organizations, over admission of female members to Augusta National. Burk said she found out about the club’s discriminatory policies by reading a USA Today column by Christine Brennan published April 11, 2002. She then wrote a private letter to Johnson contending that hosting the Masters Tournament at a male-only club constituted sexism. Johnson characterized Burk’s approach as “offensive and coercive”, and responding to efforts to link the issue to sexism and civil rights, Johnson maintained the issue had to do with the rights of any private club:

Our membership is single gender just as many other organizations and clubs all across America. These would include Junior Leagues, sororities, fraternities, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and countless others. And we all have a moral and legal right to organize our clubs the way we wish.
Burk, whose childhood nickname was also Hootie, claims to have been “called a man hater, anti-family, lesbian, all the usual things.” Johnson was portrayed as a Senator Claghorn type—”a blustery defender of all things Southern”—despite his progressive social record.

Following the discord, two club members resigned: Thomas H. Wyman, a former CEO of CBS, and John Snow, when President George W. Bush nominated him to serve as Secretary of the Treasury.

Pressure on corporate sponsors led the club to broadcast the 2003 and 2004 tournaments without commercials. As of 2012, no woman had been admitted to Augusta National.

The controversy was discussed by the International Olympic Committee when re-examining whether golf meets Olympic criteria of a “sport practiced without discrimination with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.”

Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson dropped the three U.S. TV advertisers — Coca-Cola, Citigroup and IBM — to protect them, he said, from Martha Burk, chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations (NCWO), who’s leading the charge to gain club membership for the first woman.
The bold decision was unprecedented in the world of pro sports — and expensive. Johnson’s decision is costing the club an estimated $7 million in revenues this year, say sports marketers. An Augusta National spokesman declined to comment.
Coca-Cola did not send its usual group of executives and guests this year, about 100 people. And Cadillac, demoted after 34 years from a sponsor in 2002 to providing cars for the tournament, is not even doing that this time. Augusta National is renting cars from Enterprise.
Here are some scenarios being discussed for the elite, 300-member club that boasts the likes of golfer-businessmen Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, U.S. Rep. Amo Houghton (R-N.Y.) and William Farish, U.S. ambassador to Great Britain:

Go it alone. Johnson told Sports Illustrated in November that he can stage The Masters without sponsors “indefinitely.” Augusta National is, in fact, a for-profit entity that’s “swimming in money,” according to Curt Sampson, author of the tell-all book, The Masters.

Every year, Augusta National Inc. takes in millions in revenues from TV rights, ticket sales (or “badges” for “patrons,” in the club’s vernacular) and such licensed merchandise as hats, shoes, gloves and umbrellas.

The club is so flush it has never charged close to what it can get, according to Andrews, for everything from U.S. and international broadcast rights fees to membership fees to its famous “pimento cheese” sandwiches. The club also donates to charity: $3.3 million in 2002, $15.5 million the last five years.

“They certainly make decisions as if they have a lot of money,” Andrews says, “and don’t have to worry about generating a lot of annual revenue.”

The powerful members of Augusta are used to getting their way, all the time. The solo approach would save them the headache of meddling sponsors. Both Coke and Citigroup were “leaning” on the club about the women’s issue, says Andrews, before Johnson cut them loose.

Sampson predicts the club will make a ton of money from sales of licensed gear in this, the year of the great Hootie vs. Martha battle. “Anything with 2003 Masters on it is sure to be a collector’s item,” he says, laughingly.

Bring back sponsors. This is viewed as the most likely scenario. But would they be the same sponsors? And if companies like Coke, IBM and Citigroup drop out — all three declined comment on future interest in The Masters — would the tournament still attract blue-chip corporate names after the public relations debacle?

Burk doesn’t think so. “The sponsors will never come back unless they’re Hooters,” she says. “The responsible corporations of the world won’t touch them until this thing is settled.”

Andrews counters that companies would come running with their checkbooks open if “Hootie said the Masters is open for business” again. “They would take the same position as CBS: We’ll take the hit from Martha Burk just to have the association with this prestigious event.”

As Johnson told SI, “I really think that we’ll have sponsors again, maybe in 2004.”

Webcast/pay-per-view. These are considered last-ditch options, if CBS or other broadcasters bow to pressure from the NCWO and decline to air Masters telecasts. But Andrews believes the chances of that are unlikely, as there will always be broadcasters willing to air The Masters for its high TV ratings.

Plus, “Nobody at Augusta wants to be the Grinch who says you have to pay $19.95 to watch this beloved tournament.”
WE SHOUD BE ASHAMED