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To stay on the tour beyond next April, the tournament and its supporters must soon secure a title sponsor, organizers said this week.
If the Heritage can't find a sponsor before or soon after next year's 43rd annual tournament, it might not have the money to sustain itself until 2012, they acknowledge.
"We still have a lot of work ahead of us," tournament director Steve Wilmot said. "We certainly want to be on the schedule for a long time to come."
THE CHALLENGE
The Heritage last week secured a spot -- April 18-24 -- on the tour's 2011 schedule, quieting months of speculation 2010's tournament might have been the last.
Even though organizers say they can put on a first-rate tournament next year without a title sponsor, doing so would virtually exhaust their available funds.
Putting on the tournament typically costs about $10 million, and organizers can usually count on about $4 million in secondary sponsorship and other revenue, said Ed Dowaschinski, vice president of finance and administration for the Heritage Classic Foundation, which runs the tournament.
With no title sponsor for next year's tournament, organizers would have to rely $4 million from their reserve funds and $1 million each pledged by Hilton Head Island and Beaufort County. That $6 million, along with the $4 million from secondary sponsors,would allow the tournament to be staged next year, but little money would be left for continuedoperations.
Organizers would much prefer to land a title sponsor in advance of next year's Heritage, although they said fans won't be able to tell a difference in the tournament experience either way.
Putting on a top-notch tournament in April -- one no less classy than previous tournaments -- could be key to wooing potential corporate patrons, Dowaschinski and Wilmot said.
"It's very important we put out the best foot forward (to attract a sponsor)," Dowaschinski said. "Otherwise, we're out of business."
Organizers expect they can reduce some expenses in ways spectators wouldn't notice.
They are trying, for example, to cut costs on things like new signs -- the ones on hand bear the logo of previous title sponsor, Verizon --and they are asking vendors who provide portable toilets, buses, printing services and the like to charge less.
COMMUNITY CAN HELP
Dowaschinski and Wilmot said there are several ways fans and local residents can pitch in.
Perhaps their simplest request: Buy as many tickets as possible soon after they go on sale. Organizers couldn't sell tickets before the tournament's date was nailed down, but they now hope to start selling by the end of this month.
Dowaschinski said it would send a "terrific" message to potential title sponsors if the tournament could sell $1 million worth of tickets by Dec. 31, a mark it has achieved only once in his 23-year-tenure.
Two new programs also will be available through the Sponsor Partnership Club, a group of volunteers that solicited $120,000 in support from local businesses last year after Verizon announced it wasn't returning.
In addition to selling the traditional array of secondary sponsorships, which range in price from $3,750 to more than $30,000, the club also will offer two lower-cost options:
• In one, the club will offer perks such as pins or passes to hospitality venues for people who pledge $50 to $2,500.
• In the other, it will offer groups such as country clubs the option of splitting the cost of a skybox among members. Several groups informally did that last year, so organizers decided to formalize the idea this year, said Jack Wilson, a career consultant who led the club last year.
Organizers also plan to offer single-day ticket sales, though they said that move wasn't connected the sponsorship situation.
Wilson will remain involved in the club this year, he said, but he is handing off the lead role to former Harbourside Community Bank executive Tom Lennox.
The club, which set a goal of $100,000 last year, hopes to reach $250,000 this year, Wilson said.
Wilson encouraged the community to boost the tournament, which has given more than $20 million to charity since 1987 and had an economic impact of $81.9 million in 2010, according to a Clemson University and University of South Carolina Beaufort study.
"People don't realize how much we have benefited from having this event," Wilson said. "I just don't want to be in a position to jeopardize that."
