Today's Charity Mission: Hits To Make FedEx Feel Better About Their Absurd $40 Million Investment
Sadly, the FedExCup "playoffs" are almost upon us. In the wake of another captivating and satisfying Olympic Games where athletes engaged in real competition free of algorithms and contrived reshuffles, the world of sports' most synthetic competition is just a week away.
With two points reboots, little understanding of how it works and gobs of money given out for algorithm success to golfers who have perfected the art of high level mediocrity, it's virtually impossible for non-family and non-friends to care about the FedExCup. But in the interest of keeping writers employed and FedEx thinking they've invested in something worthwhile, click on this preview story for this week's Wyndham Championship and this "primer" on who may or may not make the final 125 before points reshuffle numero uno.
Because if you give these people hits, then FedEx will feel good about spending $40 million a year, they'll keep buying ads and best of all, the bean counters who've conceived this only-a-geek-could-love competition will feel good about what they've created. After all, numbers are all they really understand.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012 at 08:58 PM
Reader Comments (22)
Contrived
If there was subjective scoring on golf would Adam Scott ever lose?
I am not arguing Fed Ex is good, but the Olympic has plenty of issues when you take a hard look. The even left out the Stones in the closing ceremony...
Avg NBA Salary: $4.8 million
Avg NFL Salary: $1.0 million (2009)
Avg EPL Salary: 1.16 pounds, or $1.82 million
#50 on 2011 PGA Tour Money List: $1.7 million
EPL and PGA have bonuses. No endorsements included.
MasterCard moment of the 2011 FedUp Cup season. Bill Hass looking square into the camera lens after the playoff and asking: Who won the FedUp Cup"? Priceless......
In this blog post alone FedEx was mentioned 5 times.
And Kelly Tiglman mentions it at least 5,000 times per hour per telecast - and that's on the front nine of the opening day of the first event of the year!
So the boys at FedEx figured something out - make the math too simple and Kelly and Geoff find a different subject.
4 weeks, starting with the top 128 players in the world rankings in Week 1, playing 4 rounds.
Week 2: 64 players, 4 rounds
Week 3: 32 players, 4 rounds
Week 4, Day 1: 16 players, 1 round
Week 4, Day 2: 8 players, 1 round
Week 4, Day 3: 4 players, 1 round
Week 4, Day 4: 2 players, Playoff Championship round
This is something that the viewing public (which golf is supposedly always in search of...) could understand. And I would bet that the ratings -- which let's face it, are what playoffs are about -- would be terrific -- at least for Week 4.
Instead you end up with something so absurd, not even the competitors know what they're playing for and who's winning... What could be more ridiculous than a guy winning $10 million and asking, "who won?" Or a guy being disqualified from one of four rounds in a playoff (or choosing not to play one of the rounds) and then winning?
Only in a corporate run atmosphere where the real value of the enterprise is hidden to most behind the guise of something other than what it's being called could this be considered a "playoff." Oh, and also only in America, post-Millennium...
It's an utter disgrace to "the greatest gemme."
By Mark Soltau with Tim Finchem
Special Forward by Jim Nantz and Frederick W. Smith, CEO FedEx Corporation, a $43-billion global transportation, business services and logistics company serving more that 220 countries and territories with operations that include 660 aircraft and over 90,000 vehicles.
The $40 million of advertising/hospitality expense with the PGA Tour is less an 1/10th of 1% of gross revenues. Seems like a lot of money to us regular folks but it's chump change for FedEx.