BETHESDA (Maryland) - GLOBAL economic setbacks have left PGA tournaments struggling for sponsorship, but US PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said on Wednesday his circuit is ahead of financial expectations.
'This is very hard, but comparatively I think we're performing very well.
We are better off than we thought we would be by a good margin,' Mr Finchem said.
'We have actually had some weeks where we are up in revenue. It varies from market to market. In general, though, it's soft and we're off a bit.'
On the eve of the US$6 million (S$9 million) National at Congressional Country Club, Finchem blamed the slide on cutbacks in corporate entertaining and advertising.
'It's largely a reduction of budgets, companies saving dollars,' Mr Finchem said. 'Two areas you can save dollars without firing anybody are reduce entertainment and reduce advertising. And both of those things hurt us.'
Television networks that pay huge sums for tournaments but draw top ratings mainly when Tiger Woods is playing are finding it harder to sell advertising time for broadcasts. And hospitality tents are fewer alongside PGA courses.
'Our big two struggles right now are at the tournament level selling hospitality because of shrinking budgets and then our television product, like every other sport, selling,' Finchem said.
The PGA Tour will be down from last year's record US$124 million in charity contributions.
