"The long-term effect on the tour from Woods’s loss of sponsorships, if any, will probably not become evident for years."

Larry Dorman makes that point in reviewing the year and decade. And it's a good point to remember since now every time the PGA Tour loses a sponsor Tiger will be blamed. In this economy, that's pretty ridiculous even though his potentially diminished appeal will surely sway some companies.

Happy New Year!

Thanks to all for your insights, wisdom and humor. It's been an interesting year and 2010 figures to be another doozy! I look forward to sharing it with (most) of you.

Geoff

So Much For The Friday Afternoon News Dump: AT&T Drops Tiger**

Though I do think New Year's Eve is kind of your basic Friday afternoon no matter what day it falls on.

Some good news in the announcement: they are not dropping their sponsorship of Tiger's PGA Tour stop. Oh, and they wish Tiger well.

Update on 2009-12-31 18:16 by Geoff

**CNBC's Darren Rovell, who is often agent Mark Steinberg's first stop for revealing Tiger business news, paints a bleak future for the Tiger Woods Foundation's future now that AT&T is not renewing its deal to sponsor "Tiger Jam." He also suggests that while Nike is likely to pick up Tiger's bag sponsorship, Chevron could be the next corporation to pull out of its Woods related deals.

If there's a natural next sponsor to go, it's likely Chevron, which is in a similar situation in terms of having a less visible role with Woods, but a more active role with the foundation. It's clear that the foundation, which has done a tremendous job in raising money over the last decade, won't do as well in the near future.