While it’s good to see that McDonald’s moved on from his on-again, off-again lovefest with the Rebel Blogger and found a new topic, he’s off the mark on his appearances fees rant. None of the old dinosaurs who rail about the good old days in sports want to hear this, but appearance fees actually help the game. They get the stars into the lesser tournaments, give the fans the matchups they want to see.
Who cares why Tiger, Vijay and Phil all decided to play at Doral? The only important thing is that they did all play. It’s not your money. If some sponsor with a bottomless checkbook wants to pay a little insurance to make sure there’s a good field in the tournament with their name on it, more power to them. Otherwise, the PGA becomes like boxing and you have stars ducking each other until the majors and a few other select events.
Appearance fees actually level the playing field for the little tournaments. A $150,000 to a top player here and there is a great business expense considering the payoff in increased status, advertising and TV ratings for their tournament. Tiger Woods is right and the Rebel Blogger’s a fool (no news flash here), the PGA Tour season is way too long . If Tiger and Phil aren’t swinging mano-a-mano, most of the country doesn’t even pay attention to pro golf until the Masters.
Appearance fees are a way to inject some spice into this endless season, to pull together a few tournaments where the field is worthy of everyone’s attention. Go back to giving the Rebel a massage McDonald.
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