Major(s) News & Notes, October 17, 2024
Ryder Cup ticket price backlash and why the PGA of America priced them so high. Plus, Norman out as LIV CEO, Roberts on Peacock's lack of profitability, This, That and Reads.
Days to The Masters opening tee shot: 172
Another Masters invitation is on the line this week at the Shriners Children's Open in Las Vegas with only 32 of the OWGR top 100 convening. A mere 11 field players are already exempt for next year’s Tradition Unlike Any Other. Still, the Shriners gathering is a significant upgrade over last week’s inaugural Black Desert Championship, where Matt McCarty booked a trip to Augusta.
There have been 87 fall events — excluding the U.S. Open and Masters in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic — dating to 2013. Twenty-five winners, or roughly 29%, have been outside the top 100 in the world ranking. Ten of them were outside the top 250.
Meanwhile, in Europe Jon Rahm headlines the Andalucia Masters field in his bid to maintain DP World Tour eligibility and therefore his 2025 Ryder Cup chances. And speaking of the biennial matches, Rahm will be one of the players noticing this week’s uproar over ticket prices for the Bethpage event.
As noted in the September 19th News & Notes after the 2025 Ryder Cup lottery sign-up commenced in a similarly rough fashion to 2019’s rollout, tickets are extremely expensive. Next year’s event appears to be the highest-ever face-value ticket price for a significant golf event. Only time and pesky market forces will tell if $750 tickets for Friday through Sunday will backfire on the PGA of America.
In this edition of News & Notes, we dive deeper into the matter with some context from the PGA of America side of things. Also covered: news of Greg Norman losing his C-Suite privileges, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts saying profitability is not a priority for Peacock, This, That and Reads.
Ryder Cup Prices Noticed And Rage Ensues
The Ryder Cup is a fantastic team event featuring the loudest roars imaginable in golf and thrills no fan will ever experience watching the Freeballers and HyAsAKiters battle it out at Cookie Dough National. But with its singular format, popularity and capability of revenue generation, spectating issues usually arise. A scarcity of groups to follow until Sunday when 12 singles matches go adds complications. And Bethpage State Park offers other issues:
The Black Course lacks natural amphitheaters, and its grand scale makes following a match impossible.
The out-and-back routing means the action is spread out over a large area.
Raised green complexes set on high spots or near fall-offs reduce grandstand possibilities.
The likelihood of early alcohol sales leading to
yahoos galorechaos worse than already lousy situations that arose in recent domestic Cups.
As interested fans awaited purchase invites via the PGA of America’s lottery, No Laying Up’s Kevin Van Valkenburg highlighted on Monday how the pricing could have a reverse crowd behavior effect by catering only to those who can afford a high price. He invoked the dead-energy U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club as the prime example of what happens when corporate drones are prioritized over core fans.
The pricing appears particularly indefensible given that the PGA of America Board of Directors approved a structure showing even a modest effort to include juniors, seniors, Bethpage golfers or military members for the match days.
Since the organization is without a CEO following Seth Waugh’s June departure, the PGA made Ryder Cup Director Bryan Karns available to address some of the more pressing pricing questions. Karns is an experienced operator of PGA of America events, and Karns’ confidence in the “product” his team is putting forward is reassuring. Karns understands that the pageantry and fun of attending something like a Ryder Cup should be akin to a World Series. But no amount of positivity can overcome the pricing optics.
A recap of how the PGA of America got to this point:
As detailed a few weeks ago, the 2025 Ryder Cup debuts the same all-you-can-eat food and non-alcoholic beverage program that’s become the norm at the last three PGA Championships. Most fans like the set and it’s generally worked well with improvements each year.
Prices for the 2025 Ryder Cup start at $255.27 for Tuesday’s practice and go up to $749.51 for each of the three competition days. By comparison, next year’s U.S. Open at Oakmont is currently $800 for a one-week-long pass covering six days.
The last domestic Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in 2021 saw tickets for Friday, Saturday and Sunday matches go for $185 a day (without inclusive food and beverage and before taxes or fees).
The jump from the European Tour Group’s non-inclusive pricing in Rome is also substantial: £52 for a ground pass for Tuesday practice, £91 on Wednesday and Thursday practice, and £210 each day Friday to Sunday.
2025 Ryder Cup parking at Jones Beach Ampitheater is not included and will be an additional charge. But The PGA of America expects a majority of fans to arrive via the Long Island Railroad after a short bus ride that is included in the pricing. Karns also says an enhanced Uber drop-off option will bring fans directly onto the property.
The ticket price was determined in consultation with consultants at Delaware North and the Patina Restaurant Group. Karns explained that Delaware North has extensive market research data and experience with sports events, and even suggested they felt a higher start point would have sold out the event. However, the PGA of America ultimately did not go as far as the consultants believed was possible.
The PGA consulting organizations believe in their data and were buoyed by the 30,000 volunteer applications received.
The ticket price decision does include the full price with taxes and fees. Meaning the retail price would have been around $660.
For his part, Karns understands this week’s backlash but also points out to The Quadrilateral how the event will be the biggest the PGA of America has ever put on. He believes it will be “incredible” and something the organization’s presentation “will back up” unlike any other they’ve put forward.
Karns says the region’s high cost of business also played into the pricing. He said post-COVID costs have not come down for various vendors and the other needs to handle 50,000 people-a-day (a number that volunteers, workers, media/television, security, etc…but this also highlights how ticketed attendance is likely to be 40,000 fans per day, assuming they sell out).
The last Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits was generally well received and proved to be an impressive effort given the remote location and COVID dynamics. But since the 2025 venue is a state park, the high entry price should have been offset by creative touches that historically have not been the PGA of America’s strongsuit.
Children under 16 are free with a paying adult Tuesday to Thursday during practice rounds, yet the policy ends when kids aren’t in school and fun stuff is actually happening Friday to Sunday. Seeing self-described game growers charging $750 for a child to watch exhibition golf is really quite gross.
The same limited policy is in place for military who can apply for complimentary daily grounds access Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. However, only Thursday offers the Junior Ryder Cup to watch and the traditionally overwrought opening ceremony.
Bethpage is a publicly owned facility but somehow the PGA of America did not think to offer a discount provision for holders of the state-verified tee time Access Pass to purchase tickets.
Guaranteeing additional early week “programming” might justify the bloated practice round cost. A past Captain’s match or concerts may yet be announced, but as of now, the incentives are lacking to a possible ticket buyer.
Capacity does not appear to have been reduced to help with viewing or to offset the high ticket price.
Before pricing the tickets, the PGA of America already had recorded massive corporate sales as of a year ago. Bringing in enormous chalet and group sales revenue should have delivered an egalitarian-adjacent ticket pricing structure.
The high cost to get in also sets the golf world up for another unseemly year of off-course jousting between players, the PGA of America and fans.
Sean Zak of Golf.com predicts the ticket cost will reverberate with players who are not directly paid to play and who may or may not wear a hat because of this. However, the PGA Tour players are beneficiaries via their organization’s 25% cut of domestic Ryder Cup profits and also receive a donation made to the charity of their choosing.
Imagine what players will think when their primary news sources—caddies, agents, cart barn guys, physios, cart barn guys’ physios, and dudes who live in the club card rooms of Whisper Rock and Bears Club—tell them about the PGA of America pricing plans?
And finally, there is the overall optic of charging so much at a public venue when the men’s professional game has a broken public image with core fans who seem very bored with greed.
Joel Beall covered this aspect at GolfDigest.com:
It’s not so much the money as what it represents. The optics of charging that type of coin at Bethpage, one of the rare municipal golf facilities in the U.S. that has a championship-level course, seemingly goes against the very egalitarian ethos of why Bethpage matters. Then there is the backdrop of the past three years of civil war, greed and self-interest in the professional game, a schism that has made many fans feel forgotten as golf’s central actors appear to care more about themselves than where their actions are taking the sport. The Ryder Cup prices, then, could be construed as another dis to the common fan. Throw in the fact the Ryder Cup is supposed to be the ONE event that’s not about money … yeah, people aren’t thrilled.
Greg Norman Out As LIV CEO
Lasting way longer than even another Norman [Vincent Peale] could have imagined, Greg Norman’s time as LIV Golf CEO is finally over. SBJ’s Josh Carpenter broke the somber news.
The two-time Open Champion’s demotion should not come as a huge shock since his removal has been openly demanded or expected by top figures as essential in partnership between the PGA Tour and LIV. The organization has also been hiring executives at a bold clip lately and it’s unclear how much say Norman had on that front.
But Norman was still working on all LIV matters as of a few weeks ago and will now move to a “Senior Director” role. (Also known as His Excellency’s Senior Neck Masseuse and Ego Development Czar.)
There is always the possibility Saudi Arabia’s executive search firm at Odgers Berndtson can’t find someone to fill Norman’s shoes. First target Brett Yormark of the Big 12 passed after “about five minutes,” reports SI’s Bob Harig.
Profitability Not Central To NBC’s Peacock Strategy?
As the remaining Golf Channel viewers get a depleted product and cordcutters anxiously await full viewing access on Peacock, Comcast’s approach appears headed for a continuation of the same in 2025. The clunkiness of it all continues to be a major issue for NBC Universal’s partners as rights deals approach for the USGA (2026) and R&A (2027).
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts’ recent comments at the Bloomberg Screentime conference will turn some heads in the negotiating departments at many sports organizations doing business with the conglomerate.
According to nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon, Roberts was asked about the collapse of cable TV, saying his company has an “indifference” approach to viewers while also having a “strategy” going forward. Roberts sees streaming platform Peacock as a “growth business,” yet when asked when Peacock would be profitable the CEO downplayed such a goal.
“But that’s not how we’re running the business,” he said. “We’re running it as part of the media business.”
And what a business it’s been. Since 2022, Peacock has lost $5.3 billion over just eight quarters and recently reported a drop from 34 million subscribers to 33 million.
That Peacock’s profitability is not the priority undoubtedly gave negotiator’s something to note when seeking rights fee increases. Assuming they want to partner with indifference as part of a broader media business strategy that still hemorrhages cash.
The full chat is here:
This And That
Recent Asia Pacific Amateur champion Wenyi Ding confirmed his decision to use a Global Amateur Pathway exemption, therefore giving up invitations to the 2025 Masters and Open Championship. “I’m excited to start my journey as a professional and look forward to teeing it up on the DP World Tour next season,” Ding said in a press release.
Bandon Dunes resort will host the 2026 PGA Professional Championship April 26-29, 2026. The event dates to 1968 and will again put 20 participants into the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink. Play for the ‘26 event will be over the Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes courses.
Reads
😢 Ron Green Jr. on the absurdity of Sergio Garcia casting himself as a Ryder Cup eligibility victim.
🏖️ I offered thoughts in Links on the problematic trend of an increasingly deeper, larger, and insanely counterintuitive bunker maintenance race in a year when Pinehurst’s pits did it the old-fashioned way.
🏴 Tony Dear with an overview of golf options on the Scottish islands.
To leave you feeling confident, assured and of sound peace of mind, this sendoff giggle comes courtesy of the Tuscaloosa News’ Chase Goodbread.
Alabama men’s coach Jay Seawell toured Goodbread and other media around the school’s just-opened $47 million “Crimson Reserve” facility built exclusively for the university golf teams. The comedy here is not in successful alums wasting $47 million on a facility for 20 kids to practice in rural Alabama without even getting 18 holes for their silly spending. Okay, maybe a little.
No. This is funnier.
“It’s the greatest practice facility in the world, and I don’t think there’s a close (second),” Seawell said. “There’s a good place down in Augusta that wishes it was more like this.” 😬
Good place, eh? Good luck digging yourself out of that one, coach!
I wonder if the PGA can capitalize on the "flavor" of New York. Ditch the ham sandwiches. How about slice of pizza, pastrami sandwich, a gyro, yakitori, pierogis, bagels, etc. No napkins ... that's why you're wearing a shirt.
Then there's the language barrier. Geoff will need to bring his translation book. There's no "bros" ... it's "dem guyz, U guyz, uz guyz ... occasionally a goombah".
Want to create demand for the tickets at those high prices ... put Poulter, Westwood, and Garcia on the Euro team.
I'm so torn between wanting to see blind drunk New Yorkers from the Bronx and Staten Island heckle the Euro team to tears vs. wanting to see the PGA powers-that-be humbled by their $750/per ticket pricing scheme that ends up bringing a horde of non-fans to the course for the free ham sandwiches and Diet Cokes and a chance to see their favorite players, Stevie Scheffler and Xavier Schauffele.