How much will no fans at WGC event shrink economic impact?
If this were a normal year, a small city would have been erected at TPC Southwind, waiting to accommodate a group of the world's best golfers and the thousands of spectators, corporations, vendors and media professionals in town to watch them play.
But 2020 is hardly a normal year. As the coronavirus pandemic coursed around the globe, millions have been sickened by the respiratory virus and hundreds of thousands have died. To protect public health, large gatherings have mostly disappeared.
The results of that will be evident at the WGC-FEDEX St. Jude Invitational where the competition will go on without fans — although, the PGA Tour slightly scaled back its restrictions to allow for approximately 50 guests of the tournament and its title sponsors, as well as spouses and significant others of the participating golfers. Officials expect the total number of people onsite over the course of the four-day tournament to be around 1,600.
Darrell Smith, WGC executive direc
tor, said this year's build-out compared to last year's is "night and day."
While some of the infrastructure for media to broadcast the event is still needed, tents, spectator stands and other trappings previously needed to accommodate guests won't be there this time.
In 2019, when the WGC-FEDEX St. Jude Invitational was held in Memphis for the first time, it pumped between $40 million and $50 million into the local economy. That was up from the estimated $20 million to $25 million its predecessor, the smaller Fedex St. Jude Classic brought to the city in 2018.
It is difficult to predict how much money the championship will bring to the city this year. But without fans, the four-day sporting event is expected to have a subdued impact by many measures, including the number of hotel rooms booked and fewer tourists eating in restaurants, patronizing bars and visiting attractions.
Hotels, restaurants expect small spike
During last year's WGC-FEDEX St. Jude Invitational, about 83% of hotel rooms across Shelby County were filled, according to Malvin Gipson, executive director of the Memphis Sports Council.
In Downtown Memphis, bookings were even higher with 96% of hotel rooms occupied, Gipson said.
Although no one expects this year's numbers to get close to the 2019 impact, a small boost is still expected near Southwind, said Wayne Tabor, president of the Metropolitan Memphis Hotel and Lodging Association.
"I think you'll see some occupancy in the usual hotels on the east side that get news media, the golfers, people related to the PGA that are staying there and putting the event on and have to be there for it," Tabor said. "I think you'll see a boost, but it will be confined probably close to the tournament. You might see some activity down at The Peabody and some Downtown hotels but not the impact that it has had in the past."
Even a small boost would likely be welcomed as hotels are ravaged by the pandemic. Although occupancy now hovers around 40%, during the early days of the pandemic many hotels saw occupancy percentages fall into the single digits. Restaurants owners that count on higher sales during the busy tournament will likely also miss out on their usual sales, though some, particularly those close to Southwind, may see a boost, said Ernie Mellor, owner of Hog Wild and leader of the Memphis Restaurant Association.
To bring a little bit of Memphis to golf fans watching at home and to help Memphis' most iconic barbecue restaurants, WGC will be launching "The Pit at Home," a Memphis barbecue delivery service that will deliver meals locally or ship to all 50 states.
"We want people to have that taste of our golf tournament while they're watching in their own home... We want that taste of Memphis' golf tournament to resonate," Smith said.
Hog Wild, The Rendezvous, Central BBQ and Germantown Commissary will all participate in The Pit at Home.
Other industries, including those that build scaffolding for the smaller presence and provide tents used for media and the golfers, will also see a boost this year.
Tourism officials hope advertising leads to future visits
Despite the lowered economic impact projections for the city during the competition, officials say there will be room for Memphis to benefit from by the tournament long term.
"I know we don't have fans this year, so we won't have the hotel impact like we loved and we enjoyed last year," Memphis Tourism CEO Kevin Kane said. "But we cannot underestimate the global advertising impact of having Memphis and the best golfers in the world on global television. To have
Memphis, Tennessee, in living rooms and dens and bars all over the world for four days is priceless for us."
Kane predicts worldwide viewership of the televised tournament could also see a spike as sports-starved fans forced to spend more time at home because of the pandemic tune in.
Alongside shots of their favorite golfers, those viewers will see cutaway shots of the riverfront, Graceland, Stax Museum of American Soul Music, the National Civil Rights Museum and other Memphis gems.
To Kane, that is all advertising for future tourists across globe when leisure travel is safe once again.
Desiree Stennett covers economic development and business at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at desiree.stennett@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2738 or on Twitter: @desi_stennett.