CALL IT AT&T CLASSIC.Byline: Eugene Tong tong 1 tr.v. tonged, tong·ing, tongs To seize, hold, or manipulate with tongs. [Back-formation from tongs. Staff Writer VALENCIA - A new but familiar blue globe will hang over Valencia Country Club's annual Champions Tour golf tournament. With sponsor SBC (1) (SBC Communications Inc., San Antonio, TX, www.sbc.com) A large, national telecommunications company that grew from a multitude of local and regional companies, including Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell, into a single, unified brand by 2002. Communications taking on the name AT&T Inc. after purchasing its former parent company for $16 billion, Santa Clarita's SBC Classic will become the AT&T Classic, officials said Monday. The tournament is scheduled for March 6-12. San Antonio-based SBC had been Southwestern Bell
Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P. Corp., one of the ``Baby Bells'' created when federal regulators broke up AT&T's national telephone monopoly in 1984. The new AT&T Inc. unveiled its new logo on Monday - a subtly different version of the old blue sphere Blue Sphere (ブルースフィア Burū Sufia with the company name, now in lowercase, below it. Tournament director Peter deYoung is getting started on a mammoth task affixing the new name and logo on everything from 1,000 volunteer T-shirts to caddie bibs and assorted signs and banners. ``It's obviously a large job, one where a lot of attention to detail has to be met,'' he said. ``But it's not anything that hasn't already been done before. It's not sending a man to the moon, but we hope to get 100 percent.'' An earlier deal had changed the tournament's name in 2000 from the Pacific Bell Classic to the SBC Classic. The new AT&T Inc. has to replace both the SBC logo and the old AT&T logo on 50,000 vehicles, 6,000 buildings and 40,000 uniforms and hard hats worn by employees, a process expected to take months. Even SBC Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California that currently play in the National League West Division. New York Giants history Early days and the John McGraw era , is up for the change. The golf tournament sponsors last month extended the contract with Valencia Country Club through 2007, with an option for 2008. The annual classic was held at sites throughout the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. region, including Rancho Park Golf Course and Wilshire Country Club, before settling in Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, in 2001. Attendance has increased by 10 percent to 20 percent each year in Santa Clarita. Last year, the weeklong event drew an estimated 35,000 to 40,000. ``It's going to be managed by the same people,'' deYoung said. ``It's going to be the same people playing it. ... We look for the same great backing we got from the community (in) the last few years. The volunteers are signing up again. We're ready to go.'' The Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. contributed to this report. Eugene Tong, (661) 257-5253 eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion