Steve (00:04.312) Okay, just one last minute. Steve (00:27.992) There really are few golf tournaments, frankly sports events in general, that have more consequence than an event that our guest today is responsible for. And when you look at Alex Urban's background and the role he plays as executive director of the Tour Championship, which is hosted on the PGA Tour. It's an event with such consequence for many reasons. We're going to get into that with Alex. We're getting into why sponsors in particular can have such a unique relationship with a sports property that is coming at the end of the year of a long journey that veterans and rookies alike have sought to win that FedEx Cup and be a champion of champions on the PGA Tour. Alex, welcome to the Transat. Alex, welcome to the Transaction Report. Alex Urban (01:27.944) Hey, thanks for having me, Steve. It's a pleasure to be here. Looking forward to talking some golf. I'm good at that. Steve (01:34.306) Yeah, golf and really what drives a motivation of some of the key stakeholders in the sport of golf distinct from other sports. And perhaps one of the most unique factors of when I look at your particular role, running a major championship on a major tour in one of the busiest markets in sports in the United States, if not the world. But not only that, Alex, in a market we're not too far away, you have something called Augusta, and you have other folk who are attempting to maximize sponsorship of a major, one of the four majors in the world. And that's gonna be interesting. When I was prepping for this discussion and having come from a golf, strong golf background, Alex Urban (02:26.407) Mm-hmm. Steve (02:32.59) recognizing how do we go out and sell and distinguish ourselves and is even that a necessity. But before we do, first let's set some some baselines. Who are the target markets for a tour championship, a major event on the PGA Tour? Alex Urban (02:50.439) Yeah, well, there's a lot of, you framed that up really nicely. There's a lot of answers to that question, depending on if you're talking about on-site attendance or you're talking about viewership or you're talking about, you know, volunteers and getting those, make sure we have enough of those. And I think the answer is it has continued to shift as well as the Tour Championship has become, you know, a continued... Steve (03:14.222) Mmm. Alex Urban (03:19.367) focus on the golf and PGA Tour calendar from a bigness elevation kind of perspective. I'll call it. Yeah, I'm just. Steve (03:29.518) Can you get specific on that? Is that a COVID shift that you're referring to? Alex Urban (03:36.084) No, not really. mean, I think it's more of a look we're on our 25th playing of the tour championship at Eastlake here this year. And that history of the tournament has undergone a lot of iterations of different versions of the tournament. know, in the early days it was the the top 30 money winners on the PGA Tour gathering kind of as a celebration of their season. And then in 2007 we launched the FedEx Cup and the FedEx Cup playoffs. And if you recall back then there were four Four playoff events, including the Tour Championship, there was a week break in there. It was a very long affair. It ended in sometimes October. And then as the golf calendar continued to evolve, and I think the thought was, hey, let's make sure this wraps up before Labor Day, before the collective consciousness of this country turns towards football, which I think is a smart move. There's a lot of overlapping fans of football and golf. the FedEx Cup took another step forward when we wrapped it up in August because there weren't those competing eyeballs for football. And then you take the evolution of the professional game with signature events post COVID and things we've dealt with the last few years in terms of competition. And what we've seen at the event level is continued support and expanded support for the tour championship because it continued to bolster its position within the sport of golf. Steve (05:01.806) So I'm gonna interject, I'm just gonna interject for one moment because I know you have, you're a voluminous resource of enormous knowledge, obviously on the PGA tour. You've been there for approximately 13 years, 14 years, and you used to run the century in Hawaii. You've got a pedigree of elite knowledge on the depths, and that's where I wanna get into, back to the demographic. Alex Urban (05:02.023) Part of that comes from history, The longer it exists, the more historic moments there are. Yeah. Please. Steve (05:29.976) Can you give us a strata please with a percentile of first and foremost, let's go first to spectator. Who is coming and what volume of attendance do you have on what you project for this year and what did you have last year please? Alex Urban (05:44.84) Yeah, we do our best to take some of those stats. I don't have the numbers at my fingertips. But I will say, by and large, most of our attendees come from a relatively close regional area here in Atlanta. So you're talking the metropolitan Atlanta area with, you know, we have pretty good drive markets in, you know, Macon and some of the other large Georgia cities, Savannah, places like that. We do see really good attendance regionally, especially in Steve (05:50.67) Sure. Alex Urban (06:14.355) Chattanooga, Greenville, South Carolina, some other place, Columbia, South Carolina, some some golf heavy markets. It's part of the world that loves golf, right? You mentioned Augusta National. This golf is synonymous with the southeast for a lot of reasons and Steve (06:30.73) age groups on those folks coming approximately. Alex Urban (06:32.965) Yeah, it's a mix, right? We've always done really well with the business executive C-suite types in the sport of golf. That is a driver of what makes our business work. But in this day and age, you have to continue to modernize, try to engage with people in their 20s and 30s, people even younger than that, that are picking up the game. And that's why you've probably seen some more intentional Strategies from the PGA Tour. I'm thinking specifically like the Creator Classic where we had these YouTube golf stars that Played out here last year on Wednesday before the tournament for the first time and then you saw that program expand at the players championship and the Truist Championship and then we're bringing it back here this year that is very targeted towards a younger demographic of golf fan a new trying to get new people introduced to this property so yeah, we're always targeting to grow our audience, but You know, we do really well as well within golf fans and sports fans here in the city of Atlanta through all demographics. Steve (07:36.534) when you look at the TV viewership, do you notice a strata that is different, is more accretive in the sense of the diversity of demographic from a spectator audience compared to the viewership audience on television? Alex Urban (07:50.996) Yeah, and again, I don't have any specific numbers sitting here in front of me, but I do know you mentioned COVID. COVID was a really interesting inflection point for the game of golf. A lot of people picked up the game during COVID because it was one of the only activities you could do. And we've seen that translate over into the professional game. I see it on site. think we have people that are coming out here that never would have come in years past because they picked up the game during COVID. And once you play golf as a funny way of, you know, have a little bit more context to what you see Scottie Scheffler doing. And you realize how he's actually like an insanely talented golf robot, for lack of a better term, that you may not have had that context before you played. He's just insane. Like the consistency with which he plays golf is remarkable. So I think, yeah, and I think that translates into the TV audience as well. But the TV audience is not a singular thing these days, right? You have people that are streaming and cutting the cord. I do that myself with YouTube TV at my house. So like, I get it. I think it's a different tranche of trying to figure out, know, linear TV is always gonna be important. And it's one of the things in golf, I'm sorry, in linear TV sports are one of the things that continue to drive ratings because you can't, you could record it, but people don't. you want to watch in its appointment viewing. really interesting to watch those trends. Steve (09:21.582) But your linear really is free to air while cable and the Golf Channel do represent a few hundred thousand typically on a Thursday, Friday each respectively. And then Saturday, Sunday, do you come in with Golf Channel and then yield to CBS or NBC? Alex Urban (09:31.451) Yeah, they carry our Thursday, Friday and then ESPN plus does as well. Alex Urban (09:41.043) Yeah, correct. In fact, on a Saturday or Sunday, you would have early, early coverage from ESPN Plus and then the Golf Channel window and then this year NBC, next year CBS. Steve (09:54.818) By the way, it's so interesting. Tell us about the fan that goes early with ESPN, within transition to the golf channel, and then pick it up live on CBS, free to air. What is that persona? Who is that, if we were to give a golf persona? And you would have seen, yeah, please. Alex Urban (10:12.731) It's probably, yeah, it's probably me. Like I do this, you know. yeah, of course. mean, I've got a almost two year old, so we're always up pretty early on a Saturday or Sunday. you know, you want to have something on the background. There's typically no sports happening between, you know, outside of your odd Premier League match, if that's your thing, which isn't really my thing, or Formula One race or something like that. Steve (10:18.702) Do you really? Alex Urban (10:41.713) You can turn on a featured group on ESPN Plus at 10 a.m. and let that play for a couple hours. You're watching it, kind of seeing how it's going. then Golf Channel usually comes on about one o'clock, I think is outright. And then that rolls into, I think we did this yesterday and then it rolled into the coverage on CBS talking about the Wyndham Championship. Steve (10:56.66) One to three. Steve (11:06.35) And so is there in your mind for a sponsor that you have, you have obviously the three biggies for the tour championship. By the way, Delta is your official airline, but Delta is an official airline at the PGA Tour. You got Southern, are they also an official of the PGA Tour? all three, Coke. Alex Urban (11:21.661) Correct. Alex Urban (11:27.953) Yep, energy, And Coca Cola as well actually is an official PGA Tour level sponsor as well. Steve (11:33.89) So when we say that you have the big three sponsors and the viewers of this program very often are those controlling budgets and spend as to where their monies are going and which alliance they're going to have with a how to reach the mindscape of their consumer with the appropriate sports sponsorship program. Alex Urban (11:45.395) Sure. Yeah. Steve (11:54.69) So you look at Coke, obviously, all three of these have a relationship ongoing throughout the year with the PGA Tour. So just so I have it right, those are three sponsors that have also a particularly unique sponsorship relationship with the Tour Championship. Is that correct? Alex Urban (12:13.627) Yeah. So just to lay it out kind of, the easiest to understand terms. we, we have three proud partners is how we, we delineate them and they are our most key sponsors on site. And that is Accenture, Coca-Cola and Southern company. And the way that that works, it's not a commonly used model in our sport is used when you have a marquee event that you Steve (12:18.392) Freeze. Alex Urban (12:41.371) want to keep the title of the event more white labeled. the comparison I'm going to make is the Players Championship is another event that has three proud partners, much like the Tour Championship. And the way that works is those three partners get a nice level of exclusivity in the TV ads that are broadcast during the tournament, which are limited comparatively to your normal week. And then on site get very, you know, We are restrictive in what we allow from a branding perspective outside of those three so that they can you know have that value from a proud partner perspective Steve (13:19.49) When you look at the 30 official partners that the PGA TOUR has just on an annualized basis, so some of those you'll typically see that LED scoreboard parked behind certain greens at official PGA TOUR events and I don't wanna... suggest they're all active. The last time I looked you had FedEx on there, which of course is active, and Mitsubishi and about five or six others that were on there at each official PGA Tour event. Do they also get that representation at the Tour Championship? Alex Urban (13:56.316) Yeah, it depends on the day and it depends on, you know, every official marketing partner of the tour. You know, they have the opportunity to activate here. We have a number of them that do. I'm thinking a few off the top of my head. So Delta, you mentioned, is a brand new official marketing partner of the tour as the official airline. And as you might imagine, when they signed on, we figured, you know, they'll probably be interested in doing something here in Atlanta, just given that we're about 15 minutes from their worldwide headquarters where I sit right now. And they, of course, the answer was yes, they wanted to do a pretty large program that includes private hospitality and things for them on the business end, but also public facing things so that they can, it's an expression of the Delta brand here in the Atlanta market. So that's a choice that they have, like any official marketing partner on the tour, we work with MasterCard. We work with... Another new partner, Stanley 1913, the official drinkware provider of the PGA Tours and who won this year. There's just a number of those types of partnerships. And yeah, we work with them specifically on various programs and things that they can do on site. We also work with some local partners as well. Like we do have local sponsors. think of I'm thinking of one specifically City of Hope, Atlanta Cancer Center. is a new sponsor for us this year and they're sponsoring our volunteer headquarters and a public covered fan bleacher, as well as some sunscreen stations. So you can imagine that's a, you know, that makes sense from a sponsorship standpoint. So it's a mixture of all of those things. It's an interesting ecosystem. Steve (15:31.342) Sure. So when you look at, for example, Delta, and they had the, I'm trying to remember, the SkyMile deck, was it, that you have, that they're announcing, so the idea of corporate hospitality, trying to align with some relevant. Alex Urban (15:41.267) Sky Mods Steve (15:53.214) product if you will and when you look at official automobile sponsorships and having a hole-in-one car where it's featured like a BMW at the BMW Championship, it's one of perhaps more overt product tie-ins that for a sponsor is really elegant, very simple and frankly probably one of the easiest to implement. Put that car on that Alex Urban (16:06.045) Mm-hmm. Alex Urban (16:13.821) Mm-hmm. Steve (16:19.422) Lake, if it's a par three, you know, there's excitement that sometimes the announcers might reference and represent that there's more to win than just the whole. they get a hole in one, you get that beamer that's out on that lake or on that stage. When you look at the brands that you have, obviously, a century prior Anderson Consulting actually was a title sponsor. I had the privilege of working them as my title sponsor of the Hong Kong Open Golf Championship in the mid-90s. At that time, they were the title sponsor of the World Championship of Golf under the name of Anderson Consulting before they switched over to Accenture and had the division of Anderson Consulting. Alex Urban (16:51.571) Here you go. Alex Urban (16:58.461) Mm. Yep. Mm-hmm. Steve (17:02.892) So when you look at such a long-term sponsor like Anderson Consulting, I'll get to Southern Company in a moment, and the beautiful, beautiful announcement they had with Paul Azenger recently, which was just gorgeous. I had the privilege of working with Payne Stewart and his agent who played in one of the biggest skins game in Asia, which I owned, Martell Skins Classic. Alex Urban (17:16.339) Yeah, that's great. Steve (17:26.604) prior to his unfortunate demise, which was so shocking. And Paul Aisinger, to see Payne's wife and son come out, present that trophy in association with America. Alex Urban (17:36.115) It's be an emotional, it's gonna be an emotional evening given how close Paul. Steve (17:39.638) is it actually being issued, being at your tournament? Will there be a ceremony? Alex Urban (17:43.654) Yes, so actually every year, is part of Southern speaking of Southern Company, their sponsorship of the PGA tour includes the sponsorship of the Payne Stewart Award. So the award is actually presented by by Southern Company. And so we do a gala made for TV kind of awarding of that event on Tuesday every year. We've been doing that for for more than a decade. And you and it's a really great night because you get Steve (17:51.821) And that is. Steve (18:04.536) Brilliant. Steve (18:10.402) and Alex Urban (18:11.655) I think you get some of these guys I'm thinking about. Billy Andrade received it a few years ago and he spent some time around Payne and the guys that had the personal relationship with him, I think it really hits them because Mr. Stewart's family is sitting in the audience right there in front and there's players and the commissioner of the tour and it's a pretty powerful moment and Paul and Payne, I think were very, very close. In fact, Steve (18:32.034) Yeah, powerful. Steve (18:38.786) Very close. Alex Urban (18:39.375) all delivered the eulogy at his funeral. So I think it's going to be a really special evening. It always is, but it's Steve (18:41.922) Yeah. When they came around, almost like the dating game, I don't know any other analogy, but it was almost like when he accepted and Payne's wife and son came, and Paul not knowing that they were there, it was very touching, very moving. And I don't think there's ever been an athlete in any sport with whom I've worked that I believe had more dignity and more... Alex Urban (18:57.18) Yeah. Alex Urban (19:05.297) Hmm. Steve (19:06.348) represented the game better than any sport than pain Stewart. And again, presented by Southern company. For me, when you see that Alliance of a brand and the name the pain Stewart award, it gets to the heart and soul of what is effective sponsorship. The fact that you just said you build this, this annualized Tuesday made for TV event. It is emotional and it is touching and it perpetuates Payne's memory and it involves his family and it's dignified and it's very uplifting and it's done in a way that a sponsor as well is going to have enormous, enormous value. as I look at this, I want to ask you on two avenues of sponsorship. Let's first go to, as we kind of migrate from the Southern Company and look at Accenture. Steve (19:58.766) You know, you look at, again, just your third partner in Coke. Well, Coke is going to be ubiquitous at venue, right? So Coke, there's not going to be a competitive cola there. Coke has a host of liquids to consume. I don't know if you divide it by official, water official, cola, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, so the official beverage industries, sports drink as well. Yeah, so. Alex Urban (20:09.382) No. Alex Urban (20:17.427) They own pretty much everything that's non-alcoholic. Yeah. Oh yeah, we Powerade and all some of their other products. Steve (20:25.206) Right, so you're not going to offend them by putting any of their competitors' products there, which is proper thing to do and the respectful thing to do, in my opinion, throughout the sports industry. But Coke is noticeably, it is a consumable utility product. And again, all of its offshoots, because I've got to be hydrated. With Accenture, it screams out VIP corporate hospitality. Alex Urban (20:44.039) Yeah. Yes. Steve (20:53.442) How do we go for an Accenture to go above and beyond where the Accenture folk, and obviously they've been around golf for over 30 years, how do we reward them and how do they reward themselves so they walk away and feel they've gotten more value than what they paid for the Tour Championship sponsorship? Alex Urban (21:13.969) Yeah, that's a really good question. And I think, you know. companies that sign on to be a proud partner of something like the Tour Championship, it's always better when there's, there's the base level of why you do any sponsorship, right? There's media value attached to it and, you know, Accenture's in the business of making sure that they're getting in front of decision-making C-suite executives. And so from a media value perspective, you asked about our audience, we do very well in that category. So that's, that's benefit from a business perspective. But I think we do the partnerships and sponsorships, especially the proud partner level, are really fantastic when there's a community tie-in. And so we're really lucky here. You Accenture has a large office here in Atlanta, and it's headed by Chloe Barze, who's always present in a lot of our tournament functions and things like that, is that, look, you're sponsoring for those nuts and bolts value that being a sponsor of the PGA Tour or the Tour Championship brings, but also that corporate citizenship. Atlanta is an interesting city. It's a really big small town in terms of, you know, it's grown a lot comparatively over 25 years versus a lot of other cities. And so there's still this small town feel to it. And people know the story of East Lake and the neighborhood here and how the foundation helped turn it around. And I'm sure we can get into this, but Mr. Tom Cousins, who actually recently passed away is... was the vision and architect of that. And the tour championship has been a partner right alongside that important work since day one. And so that's why you saw Coca-Cola and Southern Company sponsoring for many, many, many years. then Accenture, a more relative newcomer in the Atlanta area, when they opened a new office, it just became the right thing to be a good citizen of the city. You know, in addition to all those great things you get for being a sponsor of the PGA tour. So it's, it's a kind of a two pronged Alex Urban (23:16.635) approach, but yeah, when you get companies that are really, they align with those values of the organization, then it starts to become a little bit more authentic, which I think you were getting at with the Payne Stewart award. That's why it works so well with Southern. The values of Payne Stewart and the value of a Southern company, they align. And so it's authentic. Steve (23:35.854) You know, when you look at your role again, someone who's basically the CEO of this event, you have your tournament director, someone who operationally, logistically is managing the events at Venue, but there's someone who they report to and there's someone who's got the accounting level to be responsible for and literally the profitability of this. while it's a 501c3 property, a charitable quote unquote entity. And I believe last year was it seven million that was? Alex Urban (24:12.583) Well, so actually not to get into too much of semantics, this event is owned and operated by the PJ Tour, PJ Tour Inc., which for a long time was a 501c6 membership organization. It is now, I actually am from a business perspective, when we worked with Strategic Sports Group to bring on private equity investment for the first time, PJ Tour Enterprises was founded at the beginning of 2024. Steve (24:15.747) Please. Steve (24:25.24) Nice six, okay. Steve (24:39.534) Clear. Alex Urban (24:41.467) we actually roll up through that infrastructure within the tour. It is, yes. And that doesn't mean we don't endeavor to give back to the community. That is still central to our church. Steve (24:45.742) So it's a for-profit entity. How many, by the way, how many events, which we'll get to in a moment, which you do extraordinarily, but if you don't mind, how many of those events, it's a great point that prior to the quote unquote incredible flux in professional golf that saw some structural changes from a operating entity standpoint. Alex Urban (25:08.626) Yeah. Steve (25:15.596) How many of the events on the PGA Tour are now owned by the PGA Tour? Alex Urban (25:20.763) Yeah, that hasn't shifted that much. It has shifted plus or minus over the years for a number of reasons. so, and operated by the PGA Tour, which before, like I said, we were a 501c6 membership organization. So we didn't operate under the same 501c3 requirements and charitable giving if you were to buy from the tournament like so many other events do. But I would say over the year, that core of events has remained pretty stable. And that's the Players Championship, the President's Cup, the Tour Championship. Back in the day, the World Golf Championships. So you talked about the match play event, which actually Accenture was a title sponsor of back when it was in Tucson and some other spots. The Century, that event in Maui, is a tour-operated event. That was the case when I was there too. So I have been a PGA Tour employee team member since my first year in 2013. Whereas... Steve (25:53.208) Mm-hmm. Steve (26:11.128) Clear. Alex Urban (26:17.499) Other events, Wyndham Championship was last week, that's a good example. They have a 501c3 host organization that operates them. So it's a handful, it's six or seven events at this point. Steve (26:27.758) But in reality, recognizing that you own it, your contribution, as I understood it for the 2024 event, was 7.2 million. Which, by the way, when we did work, SportsBiz, which powers this broadcast, is an AI sports sponsorship optimization software development company. Alex Urban (26:42.483) you Alex Urban (26:52.723) Sure. Steve (26:54.798) At the end of the day, we did some work for Wells Fargo prior to the event being assumed control by Truist on becoming what had been one year a $20 million prize money event. Literally in three events, they went from a 7.5 million event to a $20 million prize money event in the throes again of change, the winds of change that occurred. Alex Urban (27:17.011) yeah. Steve (27:18.862) But your event, I mean, when you compare the amount of money given to charity, and correct me if I'm wrong, but 7.2 million for the events at least which I'm familiar on the PGA tour, a good year could be 2.2, 2.5 million that a 501c3 managed event is giving. It could be 1.5 million, it could be less, and it could be a little more. What do you attribute to almost doubling or trebling the amount of money that you give to charitable organizations? And where does the source of that capital, of that revenue Alex Urban (27:56.284) Yeah, no, it's, and we've grown a lot in the last four years. You know, we have, that number was just above 3.6 about five years ago and it has grown tremendously. We have grown. Steve (28:08.59) And you got involved as executive director when? Alex Urban (28:13.715) 2022 was my first event though I was sort of here two months before it started it was I would call that one landing the plane thank God the the team that we have here is as good as they come so that was that was drinking through fire hose but I will Steve (28:27.01) Okay, but you obviously spearheaded a dramatic growth in the amount of money going back to Alex Urban (28:32.691) Yeah, well, it's, you know, I think it was taking a look at what was working here, which in this market, we talked about the market and you talked about Augusta and things like that. This is a golf market and people understand the game here. They understand the value in corporate entertainment, client entertainment. They value the under they value VVIP hospitality. You think about something like a Berkman's Place at Augusta National. People understand what that means and so for us we have our 1904 club here. We have a market full of people that understand the VVIP Entertainment space and are willing to spend accordingly as long as that They get that delivery of an experience which which they do and so I think what you're seeing is Continued corporate support for the tour championship is the bottom. Yes. What's driving that growth? That's the bottom line growth drive Steve (29:26.062) And is it the PGA Tour sponsors that are part of your portfolio of sponsors that are the primary drivers or is it individual entities? How would you represent that of the big three you have, Southern Coca-Cola and Accenture? Alex Urban (29:43.272) Well, you certainly, brought in a third proud partner in 2022. So Accenture joined up in 2022. So that was, that helps. We do really well locally. We've grown a ton locally. And I think that can be attributed to the amount of businesses that are coming and relocating to Atlanta. That is. Steve (29:53.944) Hmm. Steve (30:00.514) And is that where they're contributing and saying, I'm gonna get 20 tickets for VIP corporate hospitality, a private suite, and we know X percent are gonna go towards your charitable activities, or is it an unknown entity when I am a sponsor of a particular hospitality undertaking? Alex Urban (30:07.569) Sure, or buy a private suite. Yeah, or whatever. Alex Urban (30:22.821) It's an unknown identity. What basically what happens is, is you you sign on as a sponsor or hospitality partner, whichever combination of the two. And we typically like to frame it like this. And it's true, which is if you support this tournament, you are supporting the great things, you know, community cases and community organizations that we partner with. East Lake Foundation, Focus Community Strategy, Purpose Built Communities, The First T, Metro Atlanta, all these organizations that... do wonderful work that we are so proud to support. And the better we do, the more we can give. And that's how we've walked that number up to 7.2 this last year. And so it's variable, certainly, depending on what the business climate looks like. what we've seen is growth. And so that's how we're able to point that. Steve (31:11.128) You know, it's interesting also your involvement with schools and purpose-built schools. You you've got about four to my memory of significant organizations that you support. Obviously, the first T in engaging inner city youth that are usually what, when I supported in New York through the Manhattan Golf Classic, I built a provisional golf course on Governor's Island right off of Wall Street. And we had, believe it or not, in 06, Anika Storrenstam, was number one in the world with Natalie Goldis playing against Tom Watson and Donald Trump, who was not president at the time. And obviously, first T was a big beneficiary of what we did. And seeing inner city youth that were typically, least in Manhattan, or the five boroughs, coming from usually an African-American or Latino background. Alex Urban (31:42.013) Yep. Alex Urban (31:46.109) Yeah. Steve (31:59.502) and literally hosting them with a French gourmet chef, letting them play with Hank Haney, who was Tiger Woods' coach at the time, and his team of five or four that came in for VIP corporate hospitality and golf lessons. You know, it's such a beautiful, personal, very visceral experience. When you see golf dollars, go to young folk usually 12 to 14, 10 to 14 years old. Alex Urban (32:07.955) Sure, yeah. Steve (32:27.904) and the appreciation factor of the way First T is run, where it's not taken for granted. It is so coveted. And I must say I have probably some of my fondest memories of watching. I'll just give you one anecdotal. After the event was over, we had taken out insurance for a million dollar hole in one shot. And Tom Watson took out his golf bag. Alex Urban (32:44.221) Sure. Steve (32:54.926) And we must have had 20 kids from the first tee come up, pick a club from Tom's bag. They were about 150 yards away on one of the holes. And we gave each one of them a chance to win a million dollars and hit that ball into the hole. As you and I both know, it's not the easiest of endeavors, but it just the thrill of Tom encouraging them and rallying them, you know, and giving them encouragement on their swing. was, it was beautiful. So you've got the 7 million, the ratio. Are we in a, in a profit seeking mode today? Are we going to be in a one to two mode, one to one mode in the amount of Alex Urban (33:08.519) That's fun. No, no, but that's pretty cool. Steve (33:34.16) money given to charity and when all is said and done and all operational costs have been covered, are we going to see a net benefit to the tour of a one to one or a one to two approximate dollar value benefit when we're generating this type of revenue from the sponsors? Alex Urban (33:50.087) You know, I don't think it's that consistent. It just depends. It's not an easy answer. Steve (33:55.214) What would that range look in a range? What would give us just without being specific, what would a range look like and as a target? Alex Urban (34:02.419) Yeah, well, our target is pretty simple, which is figure out how to grow so that we can give more. So if we grow, typically we're giving more. And so for us, we try to grow, you know, by by a decent factor every year. We want to if you look at, I all you have to do is take a look at that number 3.6 and 20, 21 and see that we've grown almost by factor. was almost exactly a factor of two since then in terms of what we sell. Now, that being said, expenses, you know, they go up. post-COVID we've seen more expenses than we saw pre-so we've actually grown a little bit faster than that clip. So yeah, there's not a easy formula for me to give you. Steve (34:38.894) So would you be, would you, is it fair to say that it's, from what I've seen online, are you looking at somewhere around a 1.5 in 2025, that your goal would you would hope that there would be some form of profit in the neighborhood of a 10 to 12 million profit for the PGA tour from this major within? Alex Urban (34:57.135) Yeah, that's not something I would commit to, but what I will say is if we can give more than $7.2 million and if you see that next year, then you'll say Alex is a happy guy. Steve (35:10.222) FedEx with their 30, what is it, of the 100 million that they're dedicating. I remember when they started off, I believe it was, was it 25 million that they originally pledged? Was it 15? Yeah, somewhere of 15 or 25, again, don't quote me. But of the 100 million we're up to on this final event of the year, the Tour Championship that you run, you're looking at 30 players, is that correct in the field? Alex Urban (35:18.811) I can't remember the total. I can't remember. That predates me a little bit. Alex Urban (35:39.188) Yeah, so we've actually undergone some format changes to the tournament this year that you may have seen. with that comes some changes in the way that $100 million is distributed. And so we will be playing at this event for 40, with the winner taking home 10 this year. There are some benchmark times, in fact, after the Wyndham Championship is won, to reward season-long play, given that we have dropped the... Steve (35:48.749) Right. Alex Urban (36:06.247) We're transitioning away from the starting strokes this year on site. So the players are taking on some more volatility, especially those near the top. So they just have restructured those payouts. Steve (36:15.214) I think it was a very smart move. I'll be frank with you. When the numbers started getting so big for the single champion, for me personally, I really felt like the number, it just was starting to get into, I don't know what the sentiment was. I never evaluated what was the internal assessment and was it just looking too royal? of a reward and I think 10 million dollars to the champion of the FedEx Cup is a wonderful prize allotment and when we look at even if you look at the majors in tennis for example and you look at the collective distribution Alex Urban (36:37.939) Hmph. Steve (36:56.098) Don't quote me on it, but I always remember the number of 14, approximate 14 % of the total purse going to a champion. That was always what stuck in my head when we were distributing prize money. I don't know if it's routinely that, and of course I understand we can't hold that throughout as a constant, but 10 million of the FedEx Cup I think was brilliant. Alex Urban (37:13.117) Sure. Steve (37:16.866) that your tour made the distinction and rewarded more players on the PGA Tour. I think that was a very positive development. So 10 million comes out at your tournament with the FedEx Cup. let's just go back and complete one thought with the monies distributed of the 7.2 million that went out in 2024. Alex Urban (37:31.005) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Steve (37:37.218) Do we see monies at all? I'm asking what I think is probably a rhetorical question of the 100 million. I would say probably not. But does FedEx do anything on your individual level for your tournament to supplement and edify that 7.2 million that you gave out in 2024? Alex Urban (37:55.826) Well, their sponsorship is very far reaching with the PGA Tour in general. wouldn't get into any of the specifics there, but their support is what makes us able to, you know, have the FedEx bonuses the way that we have them set up, which we're certainly very fortunate of FedEx is a great long-term partner. You can imagine they have a nice presence here because they like to be here when the big prize is given out. But yeah, no, nothing specifically that that Steve (37:58.744) Okay. Steve (38:15.928) clear. Alex Urban (38:25.671) that local number, that 7.2 is actually a little bit more driven by the local onsite revenue piece. Steve (38:31.726) clear. And by the way, when you look at it again, a standard, let's just call it a signature event on the PGA tour, which this to me stands as a, it's interesting, you we have a strata on the valuation assessment side. Alex Urban (38:40.562) Hmm? It's unique. Alex Urban (38:49.532) Hmm? Steve (38:50.454) which we call value generated per thousand. We believe that CPMs are an entry into sponsorship. They should have nothing to do with the value of the actual consumer engaging the product. Those are two very different opposing valuations. My cost to get in as a sponsor for a commercial spot versus what was the value. Alex Urban (39:02.663) Yeah. Steve (39:13.856) of Alex watching nine hours of golf, consuming my brand, is a completely different assessment. But if you will, when you look at the, it gets interesting. Yours I would call right, wedged in between a signature status, and what I would call a major, if you will, the Walker Cup, or the... Alex Urban (39:15.827) Sure, yeah, yeah, sure. Alex Urban (39:38.982) US AM or. Steve (39:39.178) if you're president, but really the four majors and really the two international competitions. You have kind of, perched in a very unique strata. So I agree with you, the players championship as well. I would agree with you. So when you look at that, the average signature event, for example, you might get 200 corporate hospitality sponsors. Alex Urban (39:42.482) Yeah. Alex Urban (39:51.987) As is the players championship, think too, has certainly grown. Steve (40:06.926) Are we looking in that same level of engagement that you're responsible for catering literally and figuratively to that many humans and that many consumers of food at your events? Alex Urban (40:20.753) This is why I mentioned the team and when I came here in 2022 and the scale of corporate support versus a century in Maui versus this is different by a factor of a lot. That number of total sponsors I think is probably pretty in line with what you're talking about from a signature event standpoint. And we have a full-time staff of 11 here that handles that entire thing. And so you can imagine from our services, and operations staff is a strong and mighty three with two interns that are seasonal. So you can imagine the volume of client emails and things that are required because also, you look at our renewal rate of people that come back year over year and we're talking 85 plus percent. is a place that people, once they get involved in, typically they're figuring out how to move up the ladder. They come in with something smaller or smaller package. And then after four or five years, they're doing a private suite or they're doing a package in 1904 clubs, that kind of thing. And it's because they're seeing great customer service, a great program. They're feeling the energy out here. It's funny. You mentioned, you know, major signature. It's all semantics at the end of the day. But what I think about is when you think about Rory McElroy's career achievements, you think about his major championships and you also say, yeah, he's also won three FedEx cups. Like he's the only guy that's done that. That's a piece, in the same way that I think people think players championships, I would argue that it'd be interesting to see over the course of years if people think the same thing about an Olympic gold medal in golf. What's important is the question. And I would argue that this has become a central career achievement that guys want. Just ask Scottie last year before he had won it. He had not won it yet. And I promise you, he wanted to make sure he captured that. Steve (42:16.258) Rory came, he was a runner up, I believe, Rory last year. Yeah, yeah. By the way, on a nuanced level of sponsorship value, you we discuss this all the time. And I'd love your frank feedback on when you have 200 providers or 200 contributors financially that are really accounting for an enormous amount of monies. Alex Urban (42:18.918) He was right there. Steve (42:42.51) that when you look at all of that VIP corporate hospitality, yet we have our official partners and we don't want them to be encroached upon by a competitor. How do we skin that when it comes to... Literally, there might be, I mean, I can go onto your website, but for the fact that a lot of your VIP corporate hospitality, since your event is less than what, two weeks away? You have, and by the way, it's really nice of you to come on literally less than two weeks away from your events. Our viewers are very, very grateful, and I am as well. But it is interesting. I can go on and book a VIP suite or hospitality through your website. Alex Urban (43:15.547) Well, happy to do it, yeah. Steve (43:30.094) How does that work when it comes to that I might be an official airline or I might be an official drink? And possibly, and is there any restrictive covenant that, and I'll leave off a name of another airline, but another airline wants to bring 20 guests or 50 guests to a very prestigious event. And those guests could very much be my clients that are really elite to me at my airline or whatever the product is. I don't have to be specific to airline. I've always thought about this and wondered, how is it when I extend an invitation to one of my most important flyers or maybe it's a specific company that does business with us that services lots of airlines? Alex Urban (43:52.263) Yeah. Alex Urban (44:02.376) Yeah. Alex Urban (44:17.011) Mm-hmm. Steve (44:18.36) How do we protect the integrity of a seven figure sponsorship that these folks are involved in? Multiple, multiple millions of dollars of contribution to the Tor Championship. Yet there are, yeah, and I don't want to call it guerrilla marketing because I really don't see it as guerrilla marketing. Yeah. Alex Urban (44:28.103) Yeah, yeah. No, no, no, absolutely. And it's actually, it's actually not that complex of a question. I will say we do not have any private suites available on our website. So we've got some Chattahoochee Club tables presented by Stanley 1913 available, but not much. And then, and then Georgian presented by PJ Tour Superstore. Those are, those are really the two main we have left. I will say both of those are fantastic experiences and someone could get a last minute big win. Steve (44:37.314) Please. Steve (44:42.668) I saw that. You guys are sold out of virtually everything. Steve (44:57.026) Well, I love the fact that your hospitality is presented by your super store. Alex Urban (45:00.987) Yeah, well, that's you can imagine. So PJ Tour Superstore is owned by Arthur Blank Sports and Entertainment. We work very close with Mr. Blank here at the PGA Tour. that's correct. Yes. He's the owner of the Falcons and founded Home Depot and very large business presence, philanthropic leader here in Atlanta. He owns PJ Tour Superstore. Yeah, correct. Steve (45:09.558) As in blank, the owner of Atlanta. Wait, Home Depot. Home Depot, yeah. Steve (45:25.9) and he owns superstores. I had no idea. Thank you for educating me. Alex Urban (45:30.481) Yeah, you got it. so that's a, they're wonderful partners. So we partnered with them on the sponsorship of that venue when we launched it last year, coming out of the corporate. Steve (45:38.222) Brilliant, so he's going to set up a complete sales entity, but he's also doing food and hospitality. Alex Urban (45:43.538) Yeah, what it is is with a venue sponsorship, it's branding inclusion. It's so that when people in there are exposed to the brand of PJ Tour Superstore, rather, is not a operating Superstore within that venue. It's more of a brand experience. They actually focus on their, they are the, he also owns and through PJ Tour Superstore, the Atlanta Drive GC TGL team. Steve (45:56.47) okay, thank you. I thought it was a very interesting conflation of food and beverage as well. Alex Urban (46:12.689) That's their main focus in branding within that venue. Steve (46:15.182) Forgive my ignorance. The Atlanta... Alex Urban (46:17.583) Atlanta Drive GC is the TGL team that is the ESPN indoor golf league founded by Tiger Woods and War McElroy. And so there's a bunch of owners of those teams. Mr. Blank owns the Atlanta Drive GC team, which won the inaugural championship actually. You know, I don't know the answer to that. I would believe so, yes. I've been fortunate enough to be in a couple of meetings with him. That man is not slowing down, that's for sure. Steve (46:23.214) Sure, for Tiger and Rory, yeah. Steve (46:30.72) How old is he by the way? He's got to be in his 80s, right? He's remarkable. Alex Urban (46:46.611) He's full of ideas, is smart as a whip, and he's seen it all, which is pretty amazing. So he's a wonderful partner of ours. Oh, did you, okay, there you go. But to answer your question on protecting our sponsors, making sure Accenture, Coca-Cola, and Southern Company are getting the value for what they do to support this tournament is one of our number one jobs. It's like that alongside of making sure we deliver for the players and their families. Steve (46:53.762) He's 82 years old, by the way. I just Googled, yeah. Alex Urban (47:15.259) are at the very peak of what we do. Hospitality is interesting. So like I mentioned, we have limited branding on site here. So if you buy hospitality, know, private hospitality suite, the Steve's suite that we'd have, you know, here on site, you would have some flexibility within that space to brand it. So when your guests come within that space, they get to interact with your brand and what have you, but that is not exteriorly facing on that venue. So that's how a... competing airline or something would be able to buy hospitality here, but they would not be able to do anything that would constitute a sponsorship. So I mentioned for example, no, their name might be mentioned in text on a locator board or something like that, but not in a logo sense or brand. Steve (47:52.652) Right, so they're not getting any on course branding. They're not getting any recognition. I love this. So let's probe just as folk who enjoy this subject matter, and I know I'm going to leave this a better man. Hypothetically, and it's not a hypothetical, it's a real practical issue. Someone who is quote unquote a competitor. of a PGA Tour sponsor is in a local market buying corporate hospitality in some capacity so they can entertain their VIPs at an event for which the official partner is a competitor. From a business standpoint, if I'm the CEO of the corporate partner of the official PGA Tour event or the actual season-long tour, What do you think most folk would say? Does it enhance my relationship with that individual who brought that company, who brought some of my target market to an event that I'm present at and I'm physically noticeable? Is that going to be something that I enhance my brand standing and you're doing me a favor among my target market, even though you invited them and you hosted them? Where do we side on this? I know that it doesn't have to be black. Alex Urban (49:15.043) I see what you're getting at. Steve (49:19.504) and white but could you make the argument that perhaps if I see Delta physically at venue and I was invited by a competitor I'm simply saying dang I mean these guys went all out for something I'm very passionate about and they did it well what do you what do you think on that Alex? Alex Urban (49:37.199) Yeah, I know. think that's a fair point and some fun conjecture to think about. certainly can't speak for how other people are viewing things and that sort of thing. Steve (49:47.434) Or am I angry that someone technically went after, do you ever get feedback, have you ever gotten here, have you ever gotten feedback that we didn't appreciate that some of our VIPs were invited by a competitor in any capacity? Has that ever happened in your career? So 13 years it's never happened to you. Okay, so it's a non-issue. Alex Urban (50:07.161) No, that's not something that I've seen personally at all. No, no, no, definitely not. Not something that I've gone through. So if it is an issue somewhere, it's certainly not making it to me. I think people understand. Look, if you go to the Mercedes-Benz stadium here, they're going to sell hospitality suites. Steve (50:18.221) Yeah. Steve (50:32.183) in totality. Alex Urban (50:33.331) Theoretically, I don't know this for a fact, but they may have a BMW suite that is bought in there, even though it's the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. if I was a BMW client, I think I understand that there are multiple people and everyone's trying to spend their marketing dollars to the best of their ability. You know what mean? Like, I don't think there would be any negative or bad blood. certainly from our sponsorship standpoint, that's why we're very careful about the branding piece and anything that's public facing. Steve (50:37.805) Mm. Steve (50:59.47) Brilliant. You know, just as we wrap up this version one of our conversation, when you look at the Atlanta market, and I do believe the future of our business, a big chunk of it, is gonna come from far more localized, effective activations, sensitive to, again, local sponsor. I think the pricing of sponsorship is only gonna continue to get more pricey for which those folk who wanna be involved in sport are gonna use alternative sports properties. We've seen dozens of new leagues announced, you referenced one of them in the form of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. And what they're doing in golf in such a novel creation that is accretive, it's completely... Alex Urban (51:42.675) Yep, Steve (51:52.238) in a beautiful way, it supplements, it fills a void that so many are enjoying. Others are trying and succeeding, others are trying and not succeeding. We all know that if you don't have a viable TV broadcast partner, it's gonna be hard to sustain for a long time. Obviously, we just saw the numbers come out on what was broadcast in the United States between the PJ tour and the Live tour. And frankly, the numbers are so low for the live. I think most of us in the industry were blown over in shock how few viewers they've garnered. And that's an unsustainable model over time, unless you just have a rich banker that wants to support you over the long haul to be determined. When you look at an Atlanta market, and is there a second event that occurs in any sport, tennis or any other of the ball sports, that people whom you're presenting opportunities and sponsorship will have to judge between. Or are you in a complete league of your own in sports sponsorship that you have a specific fit with target market that simply cannot be duplicated anywhere else in the Atlanta territory? Alex Urban (53:20.211) Yeah, well, this is a town that hosts a ton of special events. not, we're not, it's not unique to have Super Bowl. We had a World Cup that's going to be in this market next year. There are all kinds of things, Final Fours and Collegiate National Championship was here this year. And you could make an argument, oh yeah, that's, you're going to be competing for marketing dollars with Atlanta based companies. You know, maybe at the margin margin. Steve (53:37.262) Mm. Alex Urban (53:48.414) But overall, I think what separates us is the length of time that we've been here. For us, it's about becoming an event that's intrinsic to the city of Atlanta. And that goes back to what I was talking about earlier with the community tie-in, where when you support this event, including if you're buying tickets and just coming out, you know you're supporting the bottom line mission, are those impact dollars to those nonprofits. And so you buy a ticket to the tour championship and you're helping support. and bolster that 7.2 million that we were able to generate last year. That's different than the proposition if you're buying, especially in a one-off that's going to come to Atlanta and go to Indianapolis next year or wherever. Steve (54:27.822) 100%. But by the way, is there pressure to add in more of the quote unquote WM waste management style with perhaps not to that degree, but the more fan buzz. literally and figuratively fun fan fest getting that more cheerleader quote unquote not rowdy but yet rock and roll feel to it is there any pressure on the institution to evolve in that fashion Alex Urban (54:47.666) Huh. Alex Urban (54:59.144) Yeah. Alex Urban (55:02.867) Not stated like that, you know, exactly. think what we know, what we want to do, and I think what it's funny, if people have been to a tour championship 10 years ago, I would implore them to come out because the nature of onsite live events has changed in the last five to 10 years pretty dramatically because the TV product has gotten so, so good. This is for all sports that when you're talking about the in-person experience, you have to do different things to make it appealing for fans to get off their couch. Steve (55:06.314) I hope not. Alex Urban (55:32.327) get in their car, park, get on a shuttle and pay to do all of that. And so that's things like working with local food partners. It's having activations outside of the sport itself so that you're coming out for really more of the event. And it's almost like. Steve (55:33.56) Fascinating. Steve (55:50.392) you talking more of live entertainment as in concert or what are you referring to? Alex Urban (55:53.234) No, not necessarily that, but I'm talking about, hey, like a place where I can get out of the sun and interact with one of my favorite brands. So I talked about Stanley 1913. There's gonna be a activation here where you can get your cup engraved by them. So you're coming out to a event, they're cups, so actually Stanley Cup. You can get it custom engraved at the Tour Championship this year and that kind of stuff. Steve (56:08.622) You can get one, please. Steve (56:13.6) Alex Urban (56:19.155) There are places to go have a cocktail Tito's golf club is a great example where okay You're coming out you might not be the biggest golf fan in the world But you want to come to an event that has buzz has excitement and you're spending the day outside And if you catch some golf great, we get a lot of new fans that way I always use this analogy like how many people go to the Kentucky Derby every year and are they all big horse racing fans? I would await your problem Right, right Steve (56:42.35) It's the same with the Super Bowl, 120 million. The peak audience of the Super Bowl is actually during the halftime show. Alex Urban (56:52.019) Exactly. So like these people aren't just huge fans of the sport. There are plenty that are. And for us, we want to continue delivering an experience that's great, whether you are the diehard golf fan like me watching on Saturday morning, or you maybe catch the Masters once a year. You know, we try to have something for everybody. That's, think, been a real shift in the sport. Steve (57:01.048) know, lifestyle. Steve (57:15.278) Brilliant. Well, listen, Alex Irvin, I would say now a veteran of the PGA Tour, the executive director of the Tour Championship, a big event coming up within two weeks. We wish you a lot of success and obviously someone who is very in tune with virtually every stakeholder. And it's clear that your growth... Alex Urban (57:21.479) No. Alex Urban (57:29.48) Thank you. Steve (57:37.856) of what you've done for the community in Atlanta on your watch is very much attributable to you and your team. And again, I have never in my just 36 years being in this industry. I have never heard of $7.2 million being contributed by a solitary four-day golf tournament. And that is an accomplishment that is extraordinary when you look at the impact on human life that really, really benefits day to day from what you're doing. Alex Urban (57:58.993) Well Steve (58:14.816) let alone all the lifestyle and entertainment value we get from one of the greatest golf tournaments in the world. I thank you Alex for joining the transaction report today. Alex Urban (58:24.189) Well, thank you for having me, Steve. Thanks for saying all those nice things. It certainly takes a village to do what we do on the PGA Tour. So, got a great team and looking forward to a great event here in a couple of weeks. Steve (58:34.958) We're gonna just close out with Ryan making sure we upload it.