The Mirage set the first "value" reference over/under at 31 words for Ty Votaw's response to Richard Sandomir's look at sagging golf ratings. Took the over and you won easily.
“When Tiger plays or is in contention, he spikes ratings off a very healthy base,” said Ty Votaw, the PGA Tour’s executive vice president of communications. “When the No. 1, most-recognized athlete isn’t playing, there’s a falloff, but it doesn’t mean the falloff translates into a proportional drop in the value we deliver to our partners.”
Is there a VP of Value Delivery? If there isn't one, there should be. Maybe we can pay his salary with the money saved from those recent layoffs? Oh wait, that would take like 9 layoffs to get up to one EVP's income. Sorry...
But this is interesting was since I didn't know that golf equipment manufacturers account for so much of the the advertising. Here I thought it was the SPCA and The Villages.
He said that the PGA Tour and the networks would continue to benefit from a core of wealthy, well-educated “somewhat older” men who faithfully watch the tournaments and buy golf equipment. “A part of the ratings decline is the casual audience that came to watch Tiger and didn’t buy golf equipment anyway,” he said.
No sport likes to see its viewers leave even if their departure is temporary.
According to Nielsen, final-round viewership this season through Aug. 1 is down 16 percent.