Earlier this year, the Strategic Sports Group, which is led by the owners of Liverpool, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), became a minority investor in PGA Tour Enterprises.
As its investment partner, Rory McIlroy has detailed how the Strategic Sports Group (SSG) can improve the PGA Tour.
Prior to The Players Championship, McIlroy, 34, had an open discussion about the direction of golf at TPC Sawgrass. The remarks were made a month and a half after the Liverpool owners’ Fenway Sports Group (FSG)-led SSG consortium approved its original £1.2 billion investment in the tour, with the intention of raising that sum to £2.4 billion.
As a result, PGA Tour Enterprises was established, with the goal of increasing fan engagement and game growth. The creation of new business prospects through the media and with sponsors is another item on its brief.
Now, the world number two has offered his suggestions for how to make the product better. “Making it more of an occasion, akin to Formula 1, for instance,” he informed reporters.
“You go there, and it’s a racing weekend, but there are a ton of other events going on, and on any given weekend, 400,000 people enter through the gates. Thus, organizing more events of that nature is a means of improving the fan’s in-person experience.
“I think that’s one part, even for fans who don’t watch golf every week—you try to bring them to a tournament and introduce them.” The television experience was then identified by McIlroy as another area that needed attention.
At a press conference earlier this week, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan gave specifics on how the tour plans to achieve this goal by bringing new ideas to broadcast coverage. Then McIlory said, “If I were a fan, I would want to see the top players go up against one another every single week.
“It would be fantastic for the fans, I would imagine, if you just united the game and brought us all back together. That, in my opinion, would then give everything that has occurred here a positive spin.
Like, ‘Okay, let’s get together and move forward,’ and I believe that would excite people. That appears to be farther away than it should be, but that’s just my opinion. I’m not sure what that looks like.
When asked if the players were becoming more receptive to fan interaction events and opportunities, he elaborated, saying, “This is the issue with a members organization. You do realize that things are made for the members?
“After that, you have to go sell those things to media outlets, sponsors, and fans. That seems a little backwards to me. In my opinion, the first step should be to produce content for the media, sponsors, and fans, and then go out and pitch it to the players.
“Instruct them to accept that. Since we are now all involved in the company, if they join in, we will all benefit from the company’s success. I think that’s fairly straightforward.”
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