Golf: Tempting Tiger tees up catch-22

By CHRIS DANIELS

Want to bring a top name to your sports tournament? Get lots of money first. Want to get lots of money? Get a top name to come to your tournament.

Such is the catch-22 four Wellington promoters find themselves in as they attempt to lure world golf No 1 Tiger Woods to the PGA Championship in New Zealand.

With a projected budget of $10 million - five times the amount needed to run our biggest tournament, the New Zealand Open - organisers need to find big money fast to secure Woods for the PGA Championship planned for the Paraparaumu course next January.

Ask any golf fan or sporting promoter about the plans and they all say the same thing - "great idea, but where is the money coming from?"

A tournament gets money three ways: broadcast rights, sponsorship and spectators.

The executive director of the Professional Golfers Association of New Zealand, Peter Wyllie, said our small population meant big sponsorship money was very hard to come by.

This is why there has not been a PGA Championship in New Zealand in 15 years, and why questions are being raised about the viability of the planned tournament.

"Quite simply, it is a lack of sponsorship.

"These events take quite a lot of money to stage and run, quite apart from the levels of prizemoney," Mr Wyllie said.

"The reality is we haven't in this country been able to obtain that sponsorship which enables us to put on the tournament."

The New Zealand Open had a prize pool of only $500,000 and organisers had to pay TVNZ to cover the event.

So, how will a tournament that must pay $4 million before Tiger Woods even pulls out a club get off the ground?

"If we can make it happen, we'll be thrilled and it will be great for New Zealand," Mr Wyllie said.

A televised tournament from sunny New Zealand would be attractive to a Northern Hemisphere audience in the depths of winter, he said.

But, even if we ask nicely, there is no chance of Woods waiving his appearance fee.

"It's a bit like crude oil prices," Mr Wyllie said. "There is a standard and everywhere in the world you have to pay that. If we want him, we must pay the going rate."

Michael Campbell, who plays at the New Zealand Open without asking for an appearance fee, would be likely to ask for a fee to play at any Woods tournament in Paraparaumu.

TVNZ head of sport Denis Harvey said a pot of gold from world television rights might not be assured.

If shown live, it would broadcast in the middle of the night to European audiences, and close to primetime for those in the United States.

Global fans can see Tiger Woods play almost every week against better quality fields than any likely to be seen in New Zealand.

Mr Harvey said he expected little interest from subscriber television networks such as Sky or TelstraSaturn, which are more interested in attracting subscribers.

A four-day golf tournament with Woods, who is on the television regularly anyway, was unlikely to attract any new customers.

Many of the country's most committed golf fans would go to Paraparaumu to see Woods play, cutting local television audiences.

If television rights do not bring in the millions needed, organisers will have to look for the other big sports revenue stream - sponsorship.

They will have to find a company prepared to put at least a million dollars into an event that will last only four days, a difficult prospect when the big corporate spenders are tied up with the America's Cup.

Despite doubts surrounding the financial viability of the tournament, New Zealand golf fans are still waiting expectantly, hoping that in 11 months they will see Tiger teeing off here.