Tiger's hot, PGA ticket sales are not
A potential duel between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson at this week's PGA Championship is the buzz of golf fans everywhere. That is, everywhere except Chicago, where the tournament is being played.
Mr. Woods has won two straight tournaments, including last month's British Open. Yet ticket sales to the PGA, which starts Thursday and runs through Sunday at the Medinah Country Club, have been disappointing.
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Plenty of tickets remain for all four days. By contrast, two other major golf events this year, the U.S. Open and Masters tournaments, sold out more than a year in advance of opening day.
Michael Belot, tournament director for the sponsoring Florida-based Professional Golfers' Assn. of America, says he had expected 200,000 fans to show up at Medinah this week for the tournament and practice rounds, which begin Monday. But brokers say sales are lagging behind the 1999 pace, when the PGA was last played at Medinah and fewer than 150,000 showed up.
Mr. Belot won't comment on tickets sold but says "golf in Chicago seems to have more competition for fans who also follow other local sports."
The weak sales raise the question of whether Chicago's interest in golf is waning. In June, the PGA Tour announced that the annual Western Open event at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont will rotate to other Midwestern courses starting in 2008, marking the first time in nearly 50 years that Chicago won't host a regular pro golf tournament.
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TICKET SELLERS 'LOSING OUT'
Stephen Marshall, a principal at Ticket America Inc. in Naperville, was selling Medinah grounds tickets with a face value of $100 for $60 last week. In June, he was selling $100 tickets to the U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club, outside New York, for $200 and more. For tickets to the Masters tournament in Georgia, he regularly gets $800 for tickets with a face value of $100 to $150.
"It's unusual for us to sell tickets to any sports events for less than face value," he says. "It tells you the event won't be strong at all."
Max Waisvisz, owner of Gold Coast Tickets Ltd. in Chicago, bought blocks of 50 PGA Championship tickets for each day and still has 44 left for the Sunday final round. Brokers lose money if they sell below face value.
"It's a gamble and I'm losing out. I'm getting $75 and $85 for tickets on Saturday with a regular price of $115," says Mr. Waisvisz. "The bottom line is: Golf doesn't sell in Chicago."
The PGA Championship two years ago was at Whistling Straits, a remote course near Sheboygan, Wis. All four rounds sold out. Last year's PGA championship, in Springfield, N.J., sold better than this year's event in Chicago, brokers say. Last year's event did not sell out.
Ticket sales make up 25% to 30% of the PGA's more than $50-million tournament budget this year. Television rights fees and corporate sponsorships make up most of the rest.
The lagging interest in the PGA comes at a time when golf play around Chicago is down at many courses. Course owners say revenues have dipped 3% to 5% this year despite favorable weather.
Plum Tree National Golf Club in Harvard once attracted 30,000 golfers a year but will be lucky to draw 20,000 this year.
"People don't seem to have as much time for golf as they once did," says head professional Shawn Chisamore.
©2006 by Crain Communications Inc.
