The Morning According to Us: The AIG of the Sports World

Introducing Tournament Players Club Louisiana.

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Could a golf tournament further doom Bobby Jindal's 2012 and 2016 aspirations?

Think of the Tournament Players Club Louisiana, just outside New Orleans, as the AIG of the sports world. It's received over $4 million from the state for rounds not played. And it'll need a $1 million more by June 30. This doesn't bode well for the PGA Tour's Zurich Classic, which the TPC hosts later this month. It doesn't bode well for Governor Bobby Jindal, either.

Back in 2001, then-Governor Mike Foster and his economic team reached a deal with local developers: If you build your course in suburban N'Awlins, we'll subsidize it. The catch was that if a specific number of rounds weren't booked each year through nearby hotels, the state would pay the course the remaining balance.

When Hurricane Katrina happened, people didn't want to play golf in New Orleans any more. That's why the state has already shelled out $4.2 million to the TPC. And that's why it'll have to give it $1 million more later this year.

Current Governor Bobby Jindal decided not to honor one such agreement, the federal bailout money that came the state's way in February; those dollars would have helped expand the state's unemployment insurance coverage.
Jindal didn't think the state needed it, so he refused the offer.

Despite his clunky rebuttal to Obama's speech about a month ago, Jindal is still considered a potential 2012 GOP Presidential candidate. Imagine three and a half years from now and Jindal explaining, during a possible Presidential debate, why he thought local developers who built a course no one wanted to play deserved over $5 million, while the recently unemployed got nothing.

He could go wonky, say that New Orleans actually had a low unemployment rate when the economy cratered, and so the insurance coverage may not have been needed. But populist outrage is hard to shout down with data from the division of finance.

The truth is, though, however resilient the local economy is to the scary global beast slowly eating us all, the Zurich Classic will still rely on forces outside state aid. And not even $5 million in handouts can assure event organizers a successful tour stop.

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