I honestly think the best thing for the LPGA would be to merge/sell to the PGA Tour. As a stand alone entity there is so much duplication between the two tours that could be more efficiently done as one entity. I believe as one entity, they could do more combined sponsor deals across both tours and get more money into LPGA golf. Also, better negotiation of TV rights, all of which would benefit the women.
Now, I also agree the PGA Tour sucks, but they are really good at making lots of money for their players. Just think a combined entity would do so much better than the women’s tour as an independent entity.
What do you think, @Soly, based on your conversation with Mike Whan?
The NWSL attendance averages went up 22% YoY in 2019, we don’t have numbers for 2020 for obvious reasons, and they’re projected to continue going up over the next few years. Part of that is because the USWNT is dominant on the world stage but a lot of it is because the women are given a voice, they’re marketed well, and they put out a good product.
As a former Houston Dash season ticket holder it makes me happy that they’re growing like they are. Do they get paid as much as the men right now? Not even close. But I don’t think that’s as far as off as some people think.
I’m not trying to say that the WNBA approaches any of the Big 4 leagues for viewership, but this article is pretty shitty. A decade-old blog post from a student newspaper that includes the sentence “Ladies, I am not a misogynist.” isn’t exactly the kind of writing I’m interested in engaging with.
Additionally, golf is almost an outlier in individual sports w/r/t equal prize money. People already mentioned tennis, but World Cup alpine skiing has equal prize money across genders. Most track and field events have equal prize money across genders as do most major marathons. World Championship swimming and surfing offer equal prize money as well. There’s obviously differences between golf and these sports with events taking place simultaneously and under the same governing body, but it’s not some radical, pie in the sky idea. Lots of other sports found ways to make it happen. If the powers that be in golf wanted to prioritize it, they could.
Is it fair to say that the only people who would be upset about equal prize money are the male players?
And if that’s the case, can someone make an argument about why we we should care so much about them in favor of promoting a more equal environment in the sport? Sure the lower rung of male the ladder might not have enough to pay their bills after this change…but isn’t that probably already happening on the women’s side? You don’t see golf Channel going to bat for them about prize money. Not trying to be provocative, I’m genuinely curious who else would be upset about equal prize money.
The fans aren’t affected either way from what I can see.
I think doing it back to back is better than not doing it at all, but I think it’s better if it’s all in the same event. Like we’ve both mentioned, having both the men and women at the same time would build off each other and provide a singular focus for the golf world for that single week. This is the schedule I proposed earlier:
Maybe, from a conditioning standpoint, you might need to hold it at a club with two championship courses, but I think it’d be important that men and women play the same courses. Like you wouldn’t have only the women play two courses and have the men play all four rounds on the “best” course.
I think the biggest obstacle to this is even if you had everything else in place, the men aren’t going to want to share the stage or have anything possibly take away from the normal prestige of their major week.
You could streamline it even more by simply having the same amount of people at a major ~150 but instead have a 75/75 split. Sure half of each field miss out but whatever, I don’t mind. Tee times could alternate gender (so men, women, men, women, etc) each day. I’d watch the heck out of that.
Wimbledon could be 64 of a single gender instead of 32/32 split…but that’s not the point of Wimbledon. Just like the USGA, for example, could make the point of a US Open.
Appreciate the mention! This thread is a lot to digest, but thanks to (most) Refugees for being pretty cool.
No point in restating the good points that have been made here, but on a personal note, we didn’t start playing golf until 2016. We got into the PGA pretty quickly, because that was the bulk of the coverage we’d see on Instagram. But you had to look harder to find stuff about the LPGA. When we started our pod, “Low Expectations,” this past fall, one of the major goals was to bring attention to the women’s game in a way that anybody can appreciate. (We still don’t know a whole lot, but that’s kinda the point-- we’re getting our many questions answered by true pros.) Hopefully, it’s less a “women’s golf” product than it is a “golf & lifestyle” product.
If you’re looking to tune in, the DJ episode is a great place to start. The ep with Marina Alex, where she expresses her dissatisfaction with the coverage of the 2020 US Women’s Open, is also incredibly interesting.
