McDonald's useless gray matter
I’m really starting to worry about my wizened colleague Tim McDonald. Tim, buddy, are you sure you didn’t get swiped upside the head by one of those lions you’re always talking about from your South Africa trip.
Your counter arguement against PGA Tour appearance fees sure left my head spinning. The guy stumbling around the corner bus stop makes more coherent points. Heck, even Pete Rose makes more sense than you. Did you actually argue that pro golf is that rare sport where you have to earn everything you get, a sport where Tiger Woods makes the same as the poor slob just up from the Nationwide Tour if he loses?
Hello? Forget being stuck in the 20th century. You might as well be panning for gold in the 19th. Tiger Woods made $89.4 million last year, a mere $6 million of which came from his prize money. Here’s a new flash: even those million dollar first-place PGA Tour checks don’t impact Tiger’s portfolio one bit. You think he’s playing for prize money?
Phil Mickelson made $26 million in 2004, $20 million of that coming off the course. These guys are well past depending on tour dollars to make their living. That gap (sorry for the layman’s term) between the top golfers and the rest of the field isn’t in danger of happening. It happened about 10-15 years ago. Which is why there’s nothing wrong with appearance fees. Who cares if the ultra-rich get a little richer? Their incentive to win already moved past just making a living long ago. That’s why they’re stars. That’s why a few extra bucks thrown their way is no big deal.
As for your point that Tiger is not going to be moved be a mere 150 Gs, maybe not. But Vijay Singh sure seemed to be at Doral. You don’t think Barry Bonds would throw a fit if his $15,000 personal locker flat screen TV wasn’t provided by the club. It’s not about the actual dollars. It’s about the ego. Appearance fees feed into the raging egos. And if a little ego boost helps put together a tournament to remember, all the better.
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1 comment
Let me explain.
Let's say these appearance fees are allowed. What happens? The smaller title sponsors and the smaller markets once again get hurt. Just as tournaments do their best to provide special perks for the players and their families, the title sponsors will then have to start coming up with additional funds to host a seven-figure corporate outing prior to the event itself.
All tournaments would then be expected to do this, both large and small. The bar is raised, but the net impact is no change at all, except that it will cause a number of existing title sponsors to reconsider the rising costs of hosting PGA TOUR, Champions TOUR and Nationwide TOUR tournaments.
Golf professionals depend on The PGA TOUR to provide them with the arena from which to compete and be seen. This leads to the off-course revenue that in some cases dwarfs the purses these players play for.
A far better solution (this would send players kicking and screaming) would be to force high-profile players to compete in "second-tier" events every three years or so. Stagger them so that each year, these "second-tier" events will always have a marquee player or two present to drive corporate and ticket sales. This approach would also set the table for more of the "David versus Goliath" show downs that golf viewers love to watch. Remember Tiger versus Bob May in 2000?
Unfortunately, this flies in the face of Woods and Mickelson who want to substantially shorten the season. As players, they would like to see a number of these "second-tier" events fade away.
That is not good for golf, and it flies in the face of what the PGA TOUR's main responsibility is, which is providing playing opportunities for their membership, which includes Tiger and Phil at the top, and those struggling to break through.
Capitalism has a way of thinning things out on its own. We've seen that on The Champions TOUR, which is now a stronger TOUR with slightly fewer events. But, the ones that went away were events that lost title sponsors and could not be executed profitably. The marketplace made those decisions.
Leave things as they are, or look into forcing top players to occasionally visit these "second-tier" tournaments. Improved TV ratings for these smaller events can only strengthen the PGA TOUR's hand when it comes to renegotiating 8-figure television deals.
Dave Lobeck
President & COO
Fuzzy Zoeller Productions, Inc.
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