13 March 2024 , 17:12
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Rory McIlroy has outlined how the Strategic Sports Group (SSG) can help change the PGA Tour for the better as its investment partner.
McIlroy, 34, spoke frankly about the future of golf at TPC Sawgrass ahead of The Players Championship. The comments come a month-and-a-half after the SSG consortium led by Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) agreed to its initial £1.2 billion investment into the tour, with plans on increasing that capital to £2.4bn.
That led to the creation of PGA Tour Enterprises, which focuses on driving engagement from fans and growth in the game. Its brief also includes the development of new opportunities commercially, through the media and with sponsors.
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The world number two has now shared his ideas on how best to improve the product. "Having it be more of an event, like Formula 1, for example," he told reporters.
"You go there, and it's a weekend of racing, but there's so much else going on, and you get 400,000 people in through the gates on any given weekend. So, creating more events like that where it's a way to enhance the on-site experience for a fan.
"Even fans that don't necessarily watch golf week-in week-out, but you try to bring them to a tournament, get them introduced, and I think that's one part." McIlroy then pinpointed the television experience as another area to address.
McIlroy believes the PGA Tour should look to F1 as it looks to further engage fans of the sport (Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan detailed how it intends to do so through innovating its broadcast coverage during a press conference earlier in the week. McIlory then continued: "If I were a fan, I would want to watch the best players compete against each other week in and week out.
"I think if you just unified the game and brought us all back together in some way, that would be great for the fans, I would imagine. I think that would then put a positive spin on everything that's happened here.
"Like, 'OK, get together, we all move forward,' and I think people could get excited about that. I don't know what that looks like, and that seems like it's probably further away than it should be, but that's my perspective."
Asked about the players making themselves more open to engaging with fan engagement experiences and opportunities, he expanded: "This is the problem with a members organisation. Things are created for the members, right?
"Then, once those things are created, you've got to go sell those things to fans, sponsors, media. To me, that seems a little backwards. I think what needs to happen is, you need to create things for the fans, for the sponsors, for the media, and then you have to go sell that to the players.
"Tell them to get on board with that. Because if they get on board - and we're all part of the business now - if the business does better, we do better. That seems pretty simple to me."