After the news this week that the USGA has procured Promedica as a sponsor almost doubling the purse for the US Women's Open to $10m and a first prize of $1.8, a colleague texted me that the R&A would now be under pressure to follow suit.
I had to remind him that in 2021, the Women's British Open who has already got a wonderful sponsor in the American International Group or AIG increased their sponsorship to a new record for women's golf by $1.3m for a $5.8m total with the winner Anna Norquist taking home $870,000 from Carnoustie
Furthermore, this year at Muirfield they have increased the purse before the USGA announcement, by another $1m, to $6.8. In fact since the R&A procured AIG in running the event the purse has more than doubled in 5 years, and the R&A have stepped up venues to play the same courses as the men, beginning with Sophia Popov's fairytale win at Royal Troon in 2020, Anna last year at Carnoustie, then Muirfield this year, St Andrew's in 2024 and Royal Portcawl 2025.
In other words the state of the women's game is in the best shape financially ever.
The USGA announcement this week spearheaded by former LPGA Commissioner Micheal Whan, now the CEO of the USGA is a quantum leap and it took a sponsor like Promedica to make it possible.
As current Commish of the LPGA, Mollie Marcoux- Samann said " The stakes are so much higher, the impact so much bigger, I don't think we can underscore how important something like this is. I want to thank Mike, he'll go down as one of one of the greatest advocates for women's golf and really for women's sports.
Juli Inkster chimed in, "I won $315,000 in 1999 I may have to come out of retirement. This is a huge step for women's sports around the world. They rent their own cars, they do their ownn travel, they have to work really hard, now Promedica is giving these ladies an opportunity to play for a lot of money as well as our national championship, it will make or break their year, their life."
In my lifetime the argument about equality in purses for men and women has raged on for years. Wimbledon led the way as I recall and last year both the gentlemen and ladies singles champions got $2.4 each.
The fact that the ladies winner couldn't beat the 100th ranked man in tennis remains today, however as a society I think we've moved on to agree equality isn't about brute force that women have no control over.
Now remember the USGA announcement does not yet affect the purses on the LPGA, although the trickle down affect can't hurt. The LPGA still wouldn't be on TV on a weekly basis if not for the Golf Channel, under the NBC umbrella, they don't have that slobber knocker major TV Network contract
In 2020 the PGA Tour signed off on a 9 year deal with CBS,NBC and ESPN increasing their income from $400m by 70% to nearly $700m until 2030.
The LPGA benefitted from this contract to keep it on the Golf Channel and now perhaps a little more often on CBS, but are still miles behind. The average LPGA purse $5m, the average PGA Tour purse $9.
Remember ratings is the name of the game in TV, enter a certain Tiger Woods as exhibit A !!
Bryan Angus
No comments:
Post a Comment