"The golf industry can lay claim to being a bigger American business than the motion-picture industry, newspaper publishing and the combined performing arts and other spectator sports."

Thursday

Jan172008

Steve Elling reports on the seminar joined by Steve Mona, David Fay, Joe Steranka and Tim Finchem at the PGA Show to trot out some pretty wild numbers:

Orlando or not, the numbers sound like Disney fiction: The industry generates $76 billion annually in direct economic impact and can claim approximately 2 million jobs with a wage impact of $61 billion nationally.
The stage could not have been better to relay the splashy message. The PGA expo this year features 1 million feet of exhibit space and will draw an estimated 45,000 spectators for the week. So, from that standpoint, officials such as Mona and PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who helped present the new data, were preaching to the choir.
The research was conducted by SRI International, which used federal government models to arrive at its estimates. This marked the second time the sport commissioned an economic study, and despite a broad slump in the sport's growth rate since the survey was conducted five years ago, the numbers have jumped markedly from the initial figure of $62 million.

And...

"We want to be able to quantify how big our industry has become," Mona said.
The primary indices used to measure the impact were from greens fee revenues, tourism, real-estate developments linked to golf, equipment sales, plus other money generated by courses (food, weddings, dances) and the like.

Don't forget Batmitzvahs...

"Golf generates more money than any other sport in the world that we know of," Mona said.

Now, wait a sec here. Don't people bet a fair amount on the NFL?

Update on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 10:46 PM by

Geoff

The PGA Tour release says:

St. Augustine, FL, January 17, 2008 – A comprehensive new study, commissioned by the World Golf Foundation’s GOLF 20/20 initiative, has determined that golf in the United States generated $76 billion in direct economic impact in 2005, up significantly from $62 billion five years ago. The study, the 2005 Golf Economy Report, was conducted by SRI International. It was designed by the leadership of GOLF 20/20 as an update to a similar SRI study that measured the U.S. golf economy in 2000.

In addition to golf’s direct revenues, the 2005 Golf Economy Report presents for the first time the direct, indirect, induced and total economic impact of golf on the U.S. economy. The report indicates that golf generated a total economic impact of $195 billion in 2005, creating approximately 2 million jobs with wage income of $61 billion.

Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 06:25 PM

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Reader Comments (10)

Geoff, the more outrageous the lie the more people believe the lie.

01.17.2008 |

I am a big NFL fan and an avid golfer. I probably spend about 10K a year on dues, trips, clubs, meals, etc.

A fraction of my cable bill is my NFL cost and $50 for a fantasy league. The NFL has lots of gambling, no doubt, but it is generally passive involvement, unless you go to games. Golf is a spendy pursuit.

01.17.2008 |

Tighthead

I've been to weddings, dances and Bah Mitsvahs. The sums of money that I (or anyone else invovled) spent on them never helped me hole a four foot putt. I know this in my heart.

Having said that, I have never been to a Bat Mitzvah...

I agree with KJ, but does he/she know any nice Jewish girls?

And I agree with Tighthead that it's a 'spendy pursuit'

It is frightening, don't you think, that one person can command such a high proportion of that total turnover. TW earned $100m+ in 07, out of $61b - a high proportion, I think.

Who took him to a Bat Mitzvah? I knew Earl was given to prescience, but, wow!

01.18.2008 |

Pickworth

Golf generates WAY more revenue than football.

golf is a participation sport. Football is not, at least not after high school. A season Giants ticket is about $800. that's about eight rounds of golf, or one a weekend, at neighboring (and public) NJ National. Its one set of irons. All my friends spend thousands on golf per year. Gotta sell a lot of replica jerseys to match that.

the NFL (incl rights .licensing, and ticket sales) makse way more money than the PGA Tour, however. Thats a more relevant comparison.

01.18.2008 |

Bob G

Isn't the PGA of America the world's largest sporting organisation? (They say so.) If so, it's got to be an indicator of a strong retail prescence.

Aren't there lots of tennis pros, though? Swimming teachers?...Bat Mitzvah planners?

01.18.2008 |

Pickworth

Hell yes I believe these numbers, especially if they're counting Finchem and his 500 VP's salaries.

01.18.2008 |

Eddie G.

Mona said "golf generates more money than any other sport" ... not just the NFL.

Football - pro and college - costs its fans a lot more than the price of a season ticket or cable rights fee. Do you have any idea how much money you have to give to a school's athletics foundation just to have the right to purchase that $800 season ticket? And to pruchase one on the 50-yard line you better have a serious cash flow. And the skyboxes!

And the NFL and college licensed merchandise kicks the hell out of whatever you see on sale in the pro shop. Look around the mall the next time you shop.

And do you think all of that football equipment stacked up 50 to 100 players deep in every high school, college and pro locker room are cheap? Or that they might get used more than a season or two? My clubs are considerably older than any football helmet used last season. And they will be ancient went I'm still hitting them five years from now.

I don't have any idea what the numbers are, but I can say with certainty that the people who make statements like Mona are grossly underestimating the hidden rivers of cash generated by football.

01.18.2008 |

FWIW

Here's a little more gristle to chew on.

The average annual cost of 4-year private college is over $30,000. The average cost of a 4-year public is about $6,000.

So for arguments sake to bring the Dukes in line with the Central Floridas, let's just say one football scholarship costs $15,000 a year. With a D1 scholarship limit of 85 players, that's $1.275 million per school. And with 119 teams in D1A, that's conservatively more than $151 million a year PAID to colleges out of athletic endowment funds (those scholarships aren't free).

That's just Division I-A tuition, room and board.

01.18.2008 |

FWIW

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