Tiger and the money
Woods hasn’t been here for 10 years and he’s coming again to play in the Australian Masters, at a price. A $3 million price to be exact. Debate rages over this decision by the Victorian government and Aussie Golfer can’t see this dying down for some time. Tiger Woods will be quizzed on this relentlessly when he arrives. The Australian media and public aren’t nearly as pandering when it comes to this sort of rapaciousness as in other parts of the globe. He’s succesful too of course so beware. If you aren’t aware of Australia’s love with the Tall Poppy Syndrome, I suggest you click the link and get acquainted.
If you allow me to continue, I just have a few things to say on all this.
The Money
I’d love to see Tiger play and will do what I can in order to see him in Melbourne but the appearance fee is exorbitant. It’s nigh on ridiculous and it’s hard for any golf lover, let alone a State Government to justify this spending even though he is arguably the greatest golfer ever.
But from a golf point of view, think about this. What would happen if we took the $3 million from Tiger paws and put it into the winning purse raising it from $275,000 to $3.275 million. Maybe add it to the total prize money. Who this would attract? More Top 10 players? Could we get 5 0r 6 Porsche’s rather than one Rolls Royce? We’ll have a few Australian made Porsche’s playing here already.
State v State
This whole State versus State mentality in Australian golf has to stop right now. Leave it to the other sports. The NSW Premier Nathan Rees’s comments on the issue and his preference to Brian Eno is stupid. I don’t care if he does prefer Eno. The Joshua Tree was brilliant but turning this into a public slanging match doesn’t help one bit. Victorian Premier John Brumby’s choice of words aren’t much better.
Why is this even a State thing anyway? I’m completely confused and infuriated that the three States that hold Australia’s major golf tournaments in NSW, Victoria and Queensland can’t work together to get big names for all tournaments. Golf Australia has a lot to answer for here but I assume it’s all a money thing. The States have the money and therefore, they do the talking.
Tiger in Melbourne, great.
Tiger in Australia, even better.
Nice post Aussie Golfer I can certainly see your point – and actually love the idea of upping the prize pool by a hefty ammount, however this wont ‘guarantee’ big names coming. They get to play for big purses every week on the PGA Tour so a 25 hour plane ride for the ‘chance’ to win isnt as attractive as the appearance money.
With regards to Tiger’s 3 mil, how much does advertising in the states cost. Superbowl (an extreme case I know) is approx 2 mil per 30 second slot. Its quite concievable that Tiger will do well in the Masters and not only make the cut (unlike last years big name attraction John Daly) but feature in the final couple of groups come Sunday. This in turn will ensure that ESPN, NBC, TNT and a host of other US TV networks will run big stories on ‘Tiger Down Under’ I can even see the boys at ESPN Panel show PTI having some great discussions about Australia. This is advertising that you just cant buy – at any price – and the flow on in tourist numbers could be significant.
Couple with this the numbers that will come out to the course to see ‘the best in the world’ and I think its a no brainer – Well done to Golf Australia and the Vic government!
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Sarah
http://www.lyricsdigs.com