Wells Pulls Name from Wachovia Event

Wachovia Corp.’s name will not appear in the name of the 2009 PGA Tour tournament it sponsors here.
San Francisco-based bought the Charlotte-based bank last fall and intended to call the event at Quail Hollow Club the Wachovia Championship in 2009. But recent public backlash against marketing expenditures of financial firms resulted in the bank pulling all non-contractual spending as well as its name from the tournament.
Starting this year, the tournament will be named the Quail Hollow Championship.
“Wachovia has been proud to support our communities and build our business for the past six years through our involvement with the Wachovia Championship and the PGA Tour, and we had renewed our contract to sponsor the tournament in early 2008,” says David Carroll, head of Wells Fargo’s Wealth Management, Brokerage and Retirement Services Group. “Given the merger integration with Wells Fargo and Wachovia, we believe it no longer makes sense to invest in promoting the Wachovia brand via the tournament. In the current environment, we also believe that promoting this event with our brand could send mixed signals about our priorities to many of our stakeholders. Also, as a result, our company will not host any client entertainment events in connection with the championship.”
Wachovia employees will volunteer their time to support this year’s event, and the tournament will donate 2009 net proceeds to Teach For America and other nonprofit organizations, as in the past.
“We want to ensure the event continues to benefit the Charlotte economy and that fans and players have a terrific experience,” says Kym Hougham, executive director of the tournament.
“We support this name change and look forward to working with the tournament in continuing the positive business, charitable and economic impacts that have been generated by this event,” says PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem.
The future involvement of Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) in the tournament is undecided, sources says, but by acquiring Wachovia, Wells is under contract to title sponsor the tournament through 2014."

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