IBM and Masters in the spotlight
Come next Thursday Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods will be the centre of attention but first the Augusta National Golf Club needs to address a problem with corporate America that is really raising temperatures.
IBM is one of three sponsors of the event and traditionally its CEO is awarded a green jacket and made an honorary member of the club.  Two months ago IBM appointed Virginia Rometty to that role but Augusta has not permitted women members since its founding in 1933.
Calls have grown for IBM to insist on that policy being changed or to withdraw its sponsorship.  Neither side has commented on the issue so far.  Rometty is reported to play a little golf though her main interest is scuba diving.  Campaigners have said it will not be acceptable to say she has no interest in membership, nor that the support is for the tournament and not the club.  The issue is a major challenge for IBM whose reputation could be seriously damaged if it does not do the right thing.
Portmarnock Golf Club won a case at the Supreme Court in 2009 which upheld its right to operate as a gentleman’s club and ban women from membership.  It hosted the Irish Open 12 times between 1976 and 1990 but only once since then.
Sport for Business will host a Members Round Table event on Women in Sport on Thursday May 31st Contact Rob@SportforBusiness.com if you would like to participate.
Champions Sire dies in  Tipperary
Montjeu, the outstanding racehorse of his generation who became a prolific and immensely profitable sire at Coolmore Stud in Tipperary has died at the age of 16.
Having won the Irish and French Derby’s, the Prix de l’Arc du Triomphe and the King George at Ascot, he then went on to sire three Epsom Derby winners.  Last year 15 of his offspring won Group races in the northern hemisphere.  Another, Hurricane Fly won the Champion Hurdle.  Two more – Camelot and Wading are among the favourites for classic glory in 2012.
After winning a race in Paris in 2000 jockey cash Asmussen said “The last time I went so fast, I was landing in a Concorde at New York.”
Montjeu was bred by the Coolmore Stud and operated from their base in Fethard, County Tipperary where his value as a sire was estimated to be in the region of between €10 and €15 million a year.  He could have been expected to carry on as a stallion for at least another five years and probably more.
Club Rugby Report published by IRFU
The Irish Rugby Football Union has published the details of a comprehensive programme of club engagement covering 94% of all clubs in Ireland who came together through 42 individual meetings convened in 21 different venues over recent months.
As well as the engagement meetings, independent research was commissioned to provide an overall picture of where the game rests in the fabric of modern Ireland.
The research, by Millward Brown Lansdowne, was directed at participants not actively involved in the game and produced results that show it to have an important place in Irish society. 72% of those surveyed believe rugby makes a significant contribution to Irish society
One of the main areas of interest at the meetings was how funding is generated and distributed in Irish rugby.   The Ireland team is the main revenue generator, providing 81% of the IRFU’s revenue, with provinces contributing an additional 13% of income.
The IRFU reinvests 47% of expenditure to support the professional provincial teams and academies. While over €9m of revenue, 17% of all expenditure goes to grassroots rugby.
The most common problems affecting clubs were finance, emigration, social changes and the pressure of time on young players and a change in volunteering habits where players were no longer transitioning to volunteers in the same numbers.
The full report gives greater detail into these and other issues including the growth of social and women’s rugby.  It includes an overall action plan to address the outcomes. The report can be downloaded here. And will be covered in greater detail in the next issue of Sport for Business Weekly on April 12th.