THE BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS OF THE PGA TOUR
The Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) is one of the better-known sports organizations in the nation, and it is singly responsible for professional golf tournaments and exhibitions today. The PGA itself is a nonprofit organization, although it owns several for-profit subsidiaries, and the tour that it sponsors every year travels around the country bringing golfers, fans and associated personnel to resort locations. The arrival of the tour can be an economic boon for a community, and the opportunity to sponsor a PGA event can be sought after by well-known corporations. However, the organization has had difficulty attracting and retaining sponsors in recent years, and its lucrative television contract may be a contributing factor. This research considers the economic factors affecting the internal operation of the PGA as well as the external effects that the PGA brings about to the larger community.
The PGA Tour is a nonprofit event that attracts sponsors interested in funding a particular event--or simply contributing to the overall tour--in exchange for prominent display of their corporate logos. The level of sponsorship dictates the level of publicity the sponsors receive. For example, companies who underwrite significant portions of entire events have stops on the tour named for them. Thus, the tour has featured the Xerox Phoenix Open and the Canon Greater Hartford Open in years past. In addition to the prominent display of corporate logos and the repetition of the company's name, sponsors also receive the right to use their sponsorship as part of their public relations campaigns. In this way, the sponsorship gives the contributors another avenue to publicize their own company while supporting the tour.
Although the PGA is itself a nonprofit organization, and while it is also a fundraising organization for many charitable causes, it is nonetheless interested in providi...