PGA Tour Player Bonus Pool

[titleist981]

Looks like about 50 staff. https://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2020/8/6/layoffs-pga-tour-cuts-approximately-50-staffers

According to the article it was an initiative started by Tim Fitchem to consolidate duplicate positions and to clear office space. The employees were given the option of early retirement plus received severance pay. I would say that's more than what the average employer offers these days. The tour just negotiated a big TV deal, so they're looking for ways to pass some of those riches to their players.....not to mention that the PGATOUR is a non-profit.

 

[titleist981]

I'm for any initiative where as the players receive more money. For years tour players had to hustle other jobs (years ago) now when the money is in line with other sports, people start hating on their success. Unbelievable!

 

[McRock]

Phil earns about $45 million in endorsements. I just don't see him caring that much.

Rickie Fowler on the other hand earns about $10 million in endorsements. He's probably chomping at the bit to nearly double that cash.

Here's what I propose, just to see how it comes off to the players and fans alike. They should do the exact same thing for the LPGA, and see how that plays out in real life.

~Rock

 

[RealPretendPsychic]

They have the players’ attention.

 

[FairwayGreen]

So a non-profit (the tour) owns content and generates revenue from said content consisting of independent contractors (pros) who are not actually guaranteed any payment or exempt status. Footage of Rory Mcilroy's swing in a tour event is owned by the tour. Tour also uses non-tour footage for promotion (i.e. when Tiger was chipping following back surgery #4). From a business standpoint, it makes perfect sense for the Tour to pay for content, and they need to compensate players whose likenesses they use to generate ad views, ad rev, TV ad rev, etc, etc.

if Justin Rose and Rickie Fowler are paid for their commercial spots, the Tour should be paying Bryson for using his swing on a twitter post promoting an event (i.e...we know we'll be seeing a ton of this prior to next years Bay Hill).

Now, they could have done all this silently and it probably would have been better. This just seems out of touch to the casual fan, even though it's probably what should have been happening since social media began. I wonder how much of that $40m is going to be cut to Tiger right off the bat for "back pay" since purses quadrupled in his career.

 

[FairwayGreen]

They should do the exact same thing for the LPGA, and see how that plays out in real life.

~Rock

This is something I wish they did years ago. My daughter started playing golf because she thought Paula Creamer was cool, and now she usually only watches the LPGA if the Kordas, or Lydia Ko is playing, but I see her tuning in more anyway. The Tour is basically incentivizing using your own likeness to promote the tour (a closed loop influencer market?) and a tour like the LPGA, and even the European tour, could and should be adopting something like this.

 

[captaincaution]

So a non-profit (the tour) owns content and generates revenue from said content consisting of independent contractors (pros) who are not actually guaranteed any payment or exempt status. Footage of Rory Mcilroy's swing in a tour event is owned by the tour. Tour also uses non-tour footage for promotion (i.e. when Tiger was chipping following back surgery #4). From a business standpoint, it makes perfect sense for the Tour to pay for content, and they need to compensate players whose likenesses they use to generate ad views, ad rev, TV ad rev, etc, etc.

if Justin Rose and Rickie Fowler are paid for their commercial spots, the Tour should be paying Bryson for using his swing on a twitter post promoting an event (i.e...we know we'll be seeing a ton of this prior to next years Bay Hill).

Now, they could have done all this silently and it probably would have been better. This just seems out of touch to the casual fan, even though it's probably what should have been happening since social media began. I wonder how much of that $40m is going to be cut to Tiger right off the bat for "back pay" since purses quadrupled in his career.

This is one of the most rational explanations of this thing I have read. Bravo.