Do you know how much it costs to sponsor a PGA Tour event? Companies like Wells Fargo and Farmers Insurance have to put up somewhere between 13 million and 15 million a year. How do I know that? It’s because they just told the PGA Tour, “not anymore”.
PGA Tour events are in the spotlight for one week. Tour events are often poorly attended by fans, TV ratings can be mediocre, and big time stars sometimes show, and sometimes they don’t. Now the Tour wants to make sure the player exodus to LIV stops, so they want corporate sponsors to put up MORE.
Got me thinking…instead of supporting these babies on the PGA Tour who apparently aren’t earning enough, what could Farmers Insurance sponsor instead? Did you know that a typical naming rights for an NBA / NHL arena is about 1.5mil a year. Combined… that’s about 90 games, 18,000 people in stands…that’s 1,620,000 fans into your building, and we aren’t even counting concerts, WWE, Disney on Ice, and my favorite…an occasional monster truck show. You could sign a 5 year agreement with the Tour, or own a building downtown for a half century for the same amount. I love watching golf. I’d miss it if it was gone. The Tour and the players need to figure it out. I think it’s pretty obvious what figuring it out means.
Sad thing if the PGA Tour goes, so will LIV eventually as well, because some rich Saudi guy isn’t going to keep forking out tons of money for no return on investment.