European Tour will be biggest winner, whatever the result

THE importance of the Ryder Cup to the future of the PGA European Tour was underlined this week after the Tour posted record losses of £7.9million for last year.

Golf’s biggest event concludes today, but the biggest winner of all is the European Tour, with the Cup continuing to underpin their finances.

The record losses of £7.9m for 2015 — a non-Ryder Cup year — contrast sharply with the 2014 accounts, when the home event played at Gleneagles ensured a profit of £17.2m.

Turnover in 2014 was £231.4m, but this fell back to £153.6m last year, demonstrating that Gleneagles in 2014 was worth close to £78m.

In total, the last three events on European soil have boosted the organisation’s coffers by a whopping £188m.

The 2006 event gave the Tour extra income amounting to roughly £50m, while the 2010 contest earned about £60m.

That money comes primarily from ticket sales and sponsorship.

The 2014 event was attended by 250,000 people, paying £120 a head on Friday and Saturday and £145 on Sunday.

Corporates paid much more, producing £20m in ticket sales alone.

Sponsorship income runs into tens of millions, with high-end partners Rolex, BMW and Standard Life Investments splashing out substantial sums to be associated with an event beamed around the world.

The Tour’s TV income in any multi-year broadcasting ‘cycle’, from main paymaster Sky in the UK, is also boosted significantly by having the Ryder Cup as one of the events in the Tour’s package.

This year’s away edition of the Ryder Cup will give a boost, albeit much smaller, to the European Tour’s income.

Valhalla in 2008 helped keep Tour losses lower than they would otherwise have been, and Medinah four years ago helped them make a small profit.

In 2005, with no Ryder Cup, the European Tour made a loss of £0.7m on total income of £107.6m.

The following year, with the Ryder Cup at the K Club, income leapt by almost £56m, and the Tour made an £11m profit.

The Tour’s income leapt from £142.6m in 2009 to £214.2m in 2010 because of the Celtic Manor event. The PGA accounts released last week warn that the future of the Tour depends on the attractiveness of the Ryder Cup to the commercial market, as well as maintaining and growing interest in tournament golf.

Secretary Jonathan Orr said: ‘The year following a Ryder Cup is typically financially challenging.

‘The costs and preparing for future Ryder Cups takes place in non-match years without the benefit of being able to recognise significant income in the same year.

‘The future prosperity of the PGA European Tour group of companies is dependent upon maintaining and growing global interest in tournament golf.

‘The group currently derives significant income streams from television and also the success of running key tournaments such as the Ryder Cup and BMW PGA Championship.’

New PGA European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley has experience of media rights and is hoping to make the Tour more TV friendly in order to boost its revenues.

Previously he helped orchestrate the largest sports rights deal in Canadian history, the first of its kind worldwide, with the acquisition of a £4billion National Hockey League rights deal for 12 years across all media platforms.