In my opinion, such backlash from John about the LPGA policy just does one thing — it makes it so that sponsors quit supporting smaller league play. And for those places that DO NOT have the NBA, NFL or any larger professional leagues, this type of attitude basically tells those places to bend over and take it since (1) most players cannot afford translators like Yao Ming and (2) those that participate in those smaller leagues speak English, and thus are targeted in such a fashion by those sponsors. Again, every single argument out there currently fails to take into account the business aspect of the game and how smaller tours must adjust to certain more local atmospheres.
Remember the old adage of “When in Rome, do as the Romans do?” This applies much more to smaller leagues than with their larger brethren; the comparison of the NBA with LPGA is like trying to state that WNBA people should be equal in play and pay as PGA, and we all know that’s nowhere near true regardless of talent or skill. And having the actual PGA tour run through our small piece of land here in the South and knowing how much it effects our economic base? When was the last time any of these people tried to help with economic development of cities that don’t have high rises?
The change of policy by the LPGA makes it seem like liberal backlash wins yet again, on the backs of smaller leagues and not caring about whether or not it effects how sponsors react, how players are paid, and if there’s even a chance for these type of leagues to survive, let alone grow. Having been a part of many conversations for economic development in the past, I know that the original decision didn’t just come out the murky depths of who-knows-where. Remember one single thing here: the LPGA didn’t implement this policy out of the blue. They probably had sponsors that had given back end discussions about it before it was implemented.
So for those that lashed out? Good job. Hope you can sleep at night with your ideals while the others struggle in the reality of how smaller organizations are managed.
What next?
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5 Comments to “LPGA Changes Policy Due to Backlash”
Efren wrote:
Actually, the LPGA did this without any consultations at all from any of their major sponsors, which made it all the more perplexing, including several South Korean companies such as Samsung, and State Farm Insurance who didn’t understand why the change was implemented since it never asked for it. The commissioner specifically singled out the South Korean golfers, and did this all on her own, without consultation from anyone, forgetting that the #1 player in the world is Mexican, the grande dame of the LPGA is Swedish, and that most of the top female players in the world do not use English as their first language.
Posted on 13-Sep-08 at 1:44 pm | Permalink
Moye wrote:
I’m curious to know how allowing players to speak their native language would have an adverse effect on an organization’s ability to run itself, grow or make money.
And if it does negatively affect running your organization, how exactly would you regulate the people’s English skills? Would there be an oral exam? Grammar lessons? It all sounds a little ridiculous.
Posted on 13-Sep-08 at 3:36 pm | Permalink
Ben wrote:
@Moye: I’d say that if they couldn’t participate in an example interview, they’d have a month to work on it and re-do.
@Efren: If that is indeed the case, then why is the commissioner still around? That’s causation to forced step-down. Again, I still don’t see the issue, if sponsors had background commentary about it. I would point out though, that even if Samsung or State Farm did have that? Their PR people wouldn’t admit to it anyways. It all depends on where this is being done, not so much of whether or not it was South Korean.
Posted on 13-Sep-08 at 4:46 pm | Permalink
Moye wrote:
Seeing as how they’re such a small organization, they would have to extend more of their limited resources in setting up an official mock interview for each participant? And what, hire a panel of judges to determine how well their English language skills are? Do they throw in a couple puns and idioms so throw the golfers off? Who exactly gets to decide what competent English skills mean? What if someone has a learning disability and can’t pick up languages very easily? Do they create special rules for that?
I doubt a month is really enough for people to learn how to speak fluid English.
Dealing with a variety of languages is part of job when you manage a sport that is popular among non-English speaking countries. Let them play golf.
I’m not suggesting that they NOT learn English. They should and it’ll always benefit them. But don’t penalize those who don’t have the time to, don’t have the skills and don’t have this supposed level of speaking English that you assume they should have.
I think we have enough problems with people discriminating American citizens who have accents or are ESL.
Posted on 13-Sep-08 at 6:29 pm | Permalink
darkmoon wrote:
No one said anything about fluid English. But on the flip side, the point was to make it more marketable for sponsors, was it not? If so, then like I’ve said: as a business perspective, I don’t see it as an issue. Having had many friends that were fluent in English even as ESL, and then having others that couldn’t speak but broken English after years of being in ESL, I have to say that I’ve never been very forgiving of the latter.
But in a professional sport, speaking the language is as much a part of the business as playing the sport itself.
As far as the penalizing those that “don’t have the time to”, truthfully I didn’t have time for English growing up, yet I had to learn it like the rest the kids growing up. How is that any less fair? And in the same mannerism, why should the SAT even have reading comprehension and English writing on it? If we’re going to play against the whole English policy game, then why have it for anything else?
I’ll just leave it at that since Efren’s already killed the issue anyways. I still have an issue with people not being able to speak English though. If you can’t read the rules properly (which was the original cited piece), that’s going to be a problem regardless of whether or not you need or want to conduct interviews or communicate with sponsors.
Posted on 13-Sep-08 at 10:20 pm | Permalink
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