The good, the bad, and the ugly of the PGA Tour
With the 2014 PGA Tour season just beginning I thought I
would touch base on how the Tour affects the game of golf. Over the next couple
blogs, I’ll look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of the tour.
The Good
Economic Impact
There are about 46 PGA Tour events in the year. These events go all around the country and
the world bringing golfers and fans with them.
This provides a huge economic boost to a community. For instance, the Tour announced that it is
moving the Fry.com event to the Silverado Resort in Napa, CA for 2014. It is already estimated that this will bring
in between $20 million and $40 million for the 7-days.
That is a huge boost to the local businesses. Just think what the Tour does in small
markets like the Quad Cities and the boost it gives.
Charitable Contributions
What about the aforementioned charities the Tour
supports. We haven’t seen the numbers
from 2013, but back in 2012 the Tour surpassed $130 million in donations. You can see
that they have donated over $1.86 billion to charities and have probably
already surpassed $2 billion in total donations. They do great things in the communities they
visit.
Golf on TV
TV exposure is also great for the game. There are 37 weekends a year where golf is on
either CBS, NBC, or ESPN. Include the
events on the Golf Channel and you can find a golf event on TV for just about
every Thursday-Sunday. Compare this to
pro and college football, which runs 24 weekends a year, golf gets about twice
as much TV coverage. You would think
that would help to lure golfers, but it just doesn't work out that way.
Unfortunately, all of this good the Tour provides is behind
the scenes and you don’t hear much about it.
You’ll get the blurb during the telecast, but that’s about it. I’m not sure what more can be done to expose
the game and show the qualities it holds.
Maybe someday someone will figure it out.
In the next blog I’ll talk about the bad the Tour provides
for golf.
No comments:
Post a Comment