One canceled golf tournament might not, at first glance, seem like a huge deal, but a worrying trend of overreaching has dogged Alisports since its inception – and the cracks are starting to show.
Imagine it’s October 2016 and you’re the LPGA. You’ve just signed a ten-year deal with Alisports, giving them ownership rights of your most important tournament in China. All the usual cliches spring to mind – growing the game, millions of new fans, next generation of golfers etc – and you’re feeling pretty pleased with yourselves. It’s Alibaba – they’re one of the biggest companies in China, they know China, Jack Ma is basically Steve Jobs, they’ve got trillions of users etc. What could go possibly wrong?
It turns out the answer is as simple as a piece of paper.
Just weeks ahead of the Alisports LPGA tournament, scheduled for October 5-8, the tour has had to scrap it because they were never granted the proper permit for the event. Just let that sink in for a minute: they had nearly a year to get approval for the tournament, but somehow still managed to mess it up.
The PR spin on this has taken several angles. Firstly, that the 19th Party Congress – the most important political event of China’s year, scheduled to start on October 19 – has thrown a spanner in the works by arriving slightly earlier than perhaps was expected. And while it’s true that China goes berserk for these events – CSL team Hangzhou Greentown was banished from town for an entire month around the time of the two-day G20 summit last year, and I’ve personally witnessed scissors being confiscated from offices ahead of an important parade in Beijing – the Shanghai Masters tennis is scheduled for October 7-15, while the NBA‘s Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves will face off in Shanghai on October 8.