Steve Feuerstein (00:02.22)
Nicole Metzger, Chief Sales and Partnerships Officer, LPGA Tour, you've done franchise deals, partnership deals, NCAA, NFL, MBA, WNBA, NHL, MLS, I can go on and on. Really, you're a veteran in a way, obviously, in action -packed career. What a pleasure it is to have you on the Transaction Report.

Nicole Metzger (00:32.234)
Thank you, it's good to be here. When you read that litany of transition, it sounds like I have career ADD or something, which might be true.

Steve Feuerstein (00:39.662)
And the amazing thing is you're only 24 years old. But what is amazing, which I learned from one of my colleagues today, Ryan Kuser, told me that he did some good research on you. And he told me actually you started your career as an intern at the LPGA in a marketing capacity, 22 years ago.

Nicole Metzger (00:43.614)
That's right.

Nicole Metzger (01:00.318)
I sure did. That's right. It was a full circle moment. Yes, we could leave that part out.

Steve Feuerstein (01:06.446)
So 22, so just for those of you who actually really believe that Nicole could pass 24 years old, that was 22 years ago, and no, she did not begin at the grand age of two. So Nicole, what's interesting is you had all those substantial experiences working at Cronkite, working at the Miami Dolphins, Broncos. I mean, you've been heavy weighted in a lot of major organizations.

Nicole Metzger (01:16.148)
was.

That's right.

Steve Feuerstein (01:36.238)
Let's start with that journey in a way of just take us back to where your mindset was, if you can. Marketing intern, LPGA 2002. What was the business of sports for you? What did it represent to you at that time as a young woman, as a marketing intern at the LPGA?

Nicole Metzger (01:45.311)
Yeah

Nicole Metzger (02:01.861)
You know, I feel that I did not know the definition of sports marketing. I know that this is late 90s, early 2000s, the notion of the NBA becoming a brand and Commissioner Stern leaning into this term sports marketing. That was front and center in my purview of what would be an attractive career.

But what that meant, I had no idea. When I was in high school, I was on a competitive dance team. We were national champions one year, my junior year. We performed in the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Olympics, did a Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, bowl games, Super Bowl. That experience led me into...

wanting to explore more about the business side of sports, knowing that I would not carry on a professional dance career. How could I stay within this sports and entertainment business and make a career out of it? So when I was at Georgia, I was a business major with a focus of marketing. And we didn't have a true sports marketing program.

anything sports related was through arts and sciences and mostly related to kinesiology and more the physiology part of sport. So I, with the counsel of my advisors, I had to pave my own path to learn and discover what might be the right career starting point. I started with

the free internships with the athletic department and would stuff bags and help the promotions team fill seats for games with pom -poms and t -shirts. I think anybody that's been in the industry can probably relate to that first step as an intern in sports. But also knew that I would need to have a real full -time internship that was not moonlighting in between classes.

Nicole Metzger (04:15.102)
So as luck would have it, in my career, it kind of tells a similar journey throughout. There's a little bit of luck and timing and having the right network. As luck would have it, there was, I believe on monster .com an ad for an internship at the LPGA. It was the only sports related internship that I could find. And I thought, well,

I grew up in a golf course community. I'm not very good with a stick, but this is a professional sports entity property. And this will, if I'm so fortunate as to be selected, this will allow me to take that first step. So I interviewed, I think I was sitting on the steps of the law library at Georgia on a Nokia flip phone.

did a phone interview and this was a program where they selected 10 individuals. You move down to Daytona for the summer and they assigned you a department to work within for the whole summer. So being a marketing focus major with a particular passion for brand strategy, I was fortunate to get the internship and then the lead of the intern program was a student of to

feel that I would be a good fit for sponsorship being that I was so passionate about marketing and brand. I did not know what sponsorship was. I was not thinking of a sales career, much like many that word sales created anxiety and a negative connotation. But when I was placed in that role and when I got down to Daytona and learned

the true definition of sponsorship, bringing two brands together, like -minded brands with shared values for a particular purpose, in many cases, to grow each other's business forward. It just was light bulbs went on for me and gave me the true purpose of what the rest of my entire career has been to help two brands grow the business and excel.

Nicole Metzger (06:34.65)
And I feel really fortunate that the LPGA found that home for me because I haven't looked back since. And it was, it was a full circle moment when a recruiter called me for this position and a senior role and in this climate of so much momentum around women's sports and going back to a league that really started my career and my awareness of what sports marketing meant to me.

what my journey could look like. Coming back full circle and being able to apply what I've learned for the last 20 years and re -engineer and modernize a league that started my career, it's pretty special. I feel fortunate.

Steve Feuerstein (07:19.662)
You you talk a lot about the value of sports sponsorship, the alignment of two brands, in this case, a sports property and association, the LPGA, and companies from perhaps 70 different industries who might find sports marketing and the LPGA and what it offers to be a meaningful way to reach their target market. Let's go down a few layers now. So for you, the efficacy, the value of sports sponsorship.

Let's just kind of back and forth together, go one step at a time, and let's see how far we can dig. What would you say is one of the paramount benefits that you offer as the LPGA and that brand on the other side, whether it's Chevron or someone else, Evian, whoever the particular brand might be, what would be a fundamental benefit of sponsorship that you believe offers a preponderance of value?

Nicole Metzger (08:20.648)
I think one that gets overlooked a lot when talking to brands and a CMO or CEO, I'm using more metrics and data driven value and talking about how we're going to grow their business. But at the center of sports, the nucleus of sports, there's a heartbeat in sports and entertainment. We create communities and bring communities together. you have that passionate audience.

passionate consumer to bring to a brand that is paying attention, that is loyal to those that are loyal to the sports properties that they love or the athletes that they love. There's more connection to consumer for quality engagement because of the shared experiences and shared moments and the highs and lows of what sports can bring.

Many stories about more of that emotional play and emotional tie to what our property brings. I think that gets overlooked. the Olympics is a perfect example to remind us how special sports entertainment industry is and what we do. Even from an athlete perspective, those moments of celebration.

the highs and lows, I mean, I can think of even a couple of our athletes from the Olympics last week. You don't have that kind of passion, excitement and loyalty in every brand, right? This is what's unique about sports.

Steve Feuerstein (10:05.47)
And you mentioned a particularly, and we'll come in a moment to your Olympic experience when you were in Paris. You mentioned about how you're engaging women, obviously the LPGA. By the way, I've mentioned to some of my colleagues, it's something that has been on my mind for decades. I used to own the marketing rights to the Asian PGA, actually to the Asian tour.

for a while and own some of the kind of jewels in the crown of national opens from the Hong Kong Open Golf Championship to the Taiwan Open, et cetera. I always used say to my...

Nicole Metzger (10:44.082)
And so you know firsthand the fandom that can come in certain regions, right? Especially in APAC.

Steve Feuerstein (10:50.796)
I mean, particularly when you look at that Japan itself has its own tour of such significance that it can galvanize an entire country just in Japan alone, let alone the Asian play from country to country. I want to ask you just...

Nicole Metzger (11:08.51)
what weight and responsibility, right? That I love how you phrase that, galvanize a whole country. mean, that's the power of sports.

Steve Feuerstein (11:16.862)
It is the power of sport. And when I hear you speak particularly about women in sport, I have a two -fold kind of, we're gonna get back to the benefits of sponsorship in a moment, but I wanna just, I wanna veer for a moment to, we've seen how a singular personality in various sports over generations.

have radically transformed sport that they were in, that they were playing in. We've seen it in many ways, if you will, with Eric Jordan, with Michael Jordan. We saw it a lot with Tiger Woods during his prime. We've seen it now most recently, and there are many other examples, but we've seen it, and certainly the flavor of the year would have to be in there. It's going to your area in just a moment, but obviously the Caitlin Clark, to the tune of prospectively billions of dollars of consequence,

where in the name of one individual, the market perceives the power of sport and the power and the passion behind this industry and the value that can be generated for brands, for a league, for networks, for various stakeholders, for merchandisers, to all aspects of ticket sales and consumer engagement. Nelly Korda, pre -Katelyn Clark, if you will, was having, if you will, the Korda effect.

It's a hard thing to sustain in golf. Golf is one of the most competitive sports on the planet. And that parallel, it's unfair to ever draw a comparison between basketball and golf. Basketball, they get the privilege of going out every few days, play ball. You can be on screen for two and a half hours straight. And you got a lot of appeal if you're playing well. In golf, the competition is so tough week to week.

But she did. How many was it straight that she won this year?

Nicole Metzger (13:13.344)
Pushing six.

Steve Feuerstein (13:14.954)
Six, okay. So with Nelly.

How do we try to, and there are multiple ways to obviously continue to build brands. You're in the brand building business, you're in the revenue generating business, the fan entertainment business, you're in a lot of areas of business in the business of sport at the LPGA. Let's see, how far can we go with an athlete in golf, male or female, where we can be a magnet.

for the stakeholders that matter to you. Sponsors, fans, broadcasters, as the big three if you will, and those who are gonna ultimately incrementally raise the bar financially for you to reward athletes with more prize money and obviously bring more value to the market at large because you're reaching more people through your outreach. Is there a...

Caitlin Clark effect in golf and if there is or isn't would you define if there's not actually What would that look like? How do you operate when it's hard to anchor on one personality?

Nicole Metzger (14:33.549)
Sure. It's a huge weight to carry, right, as an athlete. And to your point with golf, it is such a unique individual sport being that it's such a mental sport first, right? And the effort that it takes to be good on tour or in your career as a professional golfer.

is four days every week, you're traveling around the globe. There are a lot of variables and components that come into play for you to show up at your peak performance and to do your best. So when I contemplate that question as it relates to our athletes, I feel that the real...

superhuman Wonder Woman hero story with our athletes. Not only are they deserving and elite athletes and can have a Caitlin Clark effect, but they have a whole nother layer of complications to be as great as they are that maybe the general public is not aware of. And it's on us as a league to tell those stories and to

Tell it in a way of overcoming and climbing the mountaintop and relating it to a normal, general person's life, right? Nothing comes easy. Our athletes, for context of the other professional sports, our athletes are not given travel and accommodations week to week. They're not guaranteed a paycheck.

So you could be out of pocket significant expenses going to Asia, for example. You may enter into the tournament and not make the cut. So now you're out of money for that week. That's the experience a professional golfer has mentally week over week. The stability of being a professional athlete in golf is not.

Nicole Metzger (16:50.98)
analogous to other professional sports. I think that story is an interesting story and there's an opportunity for us to tell it more. To highlight our athletes that our moms on tour and bringing their children with them week over week and what that looks like to, we call it the traveling circus. To really be completely remote and mobile week over week and not have that home base and to show up and play such a mental game.

and to come and win five straight in a row and to be a hero means a lot more in golf than it might mean in other sports. Certainly not to downplay at all. It's an achievement in its own right. But I think there's a little extra special sauce into golf and especially female athletes on tour. And for us, there's an opportunity to tell that story more. And there's really no special technique to that.

I think we've talked about in previous conversations with your team, we are working on modernizing the LPGA. And that means instituting some fundamentals and running a professional sports league that other leagues have been doing for decades. We're turning the corner into our 75th anniversary. And there's a story to be told about how our league started 75 years ago with 13 women.

who were trailblazers in the industry, much like Billie Jean King. They believed in themselves, believed in the sport and the product and knew that they could be successful if they just rolled up their sleeves and showed up every week and put on a good show. the stories about our founders in and of itself is such a wonderful

inception story to tell. And then you see the evolution over these 75 years of some of the athletes that have come through the league, like Annika Sorenstam, arguably our Tiger Woods effect. But because we didn't have the fundamentals like marketing and growing our brand as a league, we missed that showcase to tell the story. So now we're leaning into

Steve Feuerstein (19:12.366)
I want you to, if you don't mind, I just want to just interject for one quick moment. So with your founding, obviously Ladies Golf has been around. The union was there in the late 1800s. You came out with the LPGA in 1950. If I remember correctly, was Berg, Jameson and Zaharias, Babes Zaharias were some of your founders or legendary players at the time.

Nicole Metzger (19:35.774)
Yes.

Steve Feuerstein (19:41.85)
When you talk about the marketing wasn't there, to the person who wants to understand, what does that mean on a day -to -day basis of a functional output? Like you said, we didn't have what we have today and what we're aspiring to achieve. What's the tangible behind that, please?

Nicole Metzger (20:05.984)
who's as fundamental as we did not have somebody on staff with a marketing title. We did not have a marketing department until three years ago. So think about that. With the new commissioner, Molly Marcusemon, who is in her third season as our commissioner, she has really leaned into investing to grow the league and started with people. And it started with developing a marketing.

function area with a CMO in true communications and brand strategy. None of this is new, innovative and first mover stuff, but it's why I believe the Nellie Korda effect isn't as powerful as it could be if we had the fundamentals built years ago. We're naturally leaning into helping our athletes build their brands.

We're working with Hanukuma as an agency to assist a select group of athletes to better understand how to build their own brand, how to have a voice through social media, and how to connect through some of those new media platforms to be more visible and to connect to our fans and the community. We now have a focus on developing our fan and understanding our fan. That starts with collecting the data to

So you know who your fan is. There are stories of our fan data from the past as being on index cards and a closet. So in the last three years, we've started with just getting the data, right? And instilling the systems that you need to get the data. And then taking that data and understanding our core fan, our casual fan, and then our aspiring fan.

and what each of those consumer audiences need to engage with our product. And each one is very different, of course. So naturally, technology leaning into social and digital media platforms and prioritizing our athletes brands, giving them the tools to be a part of this journey with us. I feel that in years to come, you'll see

Nicole Metzger (22:30.856)
much more awareness and storytelling around these great stories that have always been there. It's not that we haven't had it. We just haven't prioritized celebrating it.

Steve Feuerstein (22:43.47)
You know, it's really interesting. I'm gonna date myself, but I actually remember the Dinosaur Classic. And now it's the Chevron, it's one of your majors, correct? The Chevron, right? So here it's interesting, this is back in 72, the Dinosaur, the inception, inaugural, genesis of that tournament. Took on a lot of different title sponsor names over the years. What was interesting about it is that was one heck of a brand.

Nicole Metzger (22:49.704)
Yes?

Nicole Metzger (22:54.506)
That's right.

Steve Feuerstein (23:13.262)
like in the United States of America, and it's actually just top of mind. I think a lot of people were shocked when Jimmy Kimmel took on a bowl game name. It's like, how could an entertainer put his name Snoop Dogg? How could these guys, like, is this the height of hubris that these guys are, it seems like, it seemed almost like an oxymoron. How could, but they don't, most people in passing don't recall that 50 years ago.

That event was celebrated. There was no sense that there was something off kilter that Dinah Shore, an actress who had the Dinah Shore show on a weekly basis that I watched, I mean, she was elegant. It really, it was part of American culture, the Dinah Shore. So as I pause and think about what you're sharing, and we talk about brand building and understanding how to brand

Nicole Metzger (24:00.672)
That's right. That's right.

Steve Feuerstein (24:10.668)
gain traction so that they ultimately can achieve their fundamental goals, which is in some shape or form, it's ultimately got to bring home the bacon, if you will. It's got to do something that, whether it's VIP corporate hospitality, whether it's showing you're involved in your community, whether it's direct point of sale, at some point, it's going to always lead back, all roads lead back to there was an ROI. And so,

What is it that we had the dinosaur in the LPGA, but perhaps as we started to see the LPGA also become more international and have much more of a diversified geographic or demographic participatory level in the LPGA? Because there are just some phenomenal players from overseas that have come and played in America. What?

Nicole Metzger (24:52.352)
That's right.

Nicole Metzger (25:03.561)
No question.

Steve Feuerstein (25:08.674)
What changed, if you will, what changed from that anchor in America of the LPGA's Dinosaur Classic, household name, everyone, the name recognition was over the top. What do you think has made it so difficult? And what do we need to do differently, if you will, to regain that glory?

Nicole Metzger (25:35.348)
You know, I would argue that we are still seeing significant results in the partnership space. know, there are two ways to invest in the LPGA. One is through an official marketing partnership or more like a traditional league partnership with year -round content. And then, of course, the other that is more forward -facing and public.

is our title sponsorship. So your Dina Shore example. If you look at our AR schedule, to your point, we're a global sport that is a competitive advantage of ours and has been something we have been able to lean into in the corporate space to provide that kind of footprint and audience for the brands looking to invest. Each one of our title partners naturally has a unique

strategy and in many ways may be different than the next event on the schedule, but all of which are connected to the return or the value that the event on the schedule brings for them. Naturally, we are a strong B2B sport, right? So it is proven that golf is the sport of business. As you mentioned, hospitality is

the activation you immediately think of within golf. There's not too much more you can do in other sports and other areas that provide that kind of quality engagement with a potential partner or buyer or customer, right? The connection of the sport to the business community and to

Businesses looking to connect even with their employees is another unique advantage that we have within golf, right? We can get our clients out on a course and they can immerse and engage in the sport with our athletes and try their best to play as well. They can interact. You can't get that necessarily with other sports. And I believe that

Nicole Metzger (27:57.074)
If you look at the trajectory that we've had in the corporate development group, we've done a great job over the years with little tools, without a marketing department, without developing the brand. The sport sells itself. I'm of course bullish that there's true value in return and in both ways to invest in the LPGA. But if you do look at the blue chip brands that are partnering

on our schedule as a title partner. They're connected to the mission and the vision of the LPGA. Their customer, their employee, their community is connected to the event in some way. They're able to deliver on the core values of that company's brand and showcase it through a seven day event and sometimes beyond that. Naturally,

the fundamentals of the media exposure and some of your basic activation is part of the equation. But I think that that heartbeat of golf is a big reason why we see brands investing because they're connected to the sport. They believe in it.

Steve Feuerstein (29:18.222)
You know, you just identified obviously some additional benefits of how we get value out of partnering with an association and an event. What I found interesting in learning more about your work is when I looked at the LPGA's history and that of the PGA tour, if my numbers are correct, it showed that from 2010, if I recall,

your prize money cumulatively, and again, I'll do a double fact check on this one, but it was 41 million in 2010. And in the 2024 calendar year, 2024, if my number is correct, we're at about $124 million this year. Interestingly enough, back in 2011, the PGA Tour, I believe, was at about 288 million. And this year, if I remember correctly,

Nicole Metzger (30:00.064)
That's right.

Steve Feuerstein (30:10.606)
The PGA Tour is right around 400 million. The incremental growth in prize money on a raw number, which blew me away, Nicole, it appears, and correct me if wrong, I'm not including FedEx prize money, I believe, but it looks like purse for events that you guys have risen over the course of last 14 years at an almost identical level of prize money rise.

Nicole Metzger (30:38.144)
That's right. Then we have still have a long way to go, right? When you compare our metrics to a PGA tour and prize money in partnership investment, we still have a long way to go. But in context to other women's sports in the history of the 75 years, our athletes have earned a living on tour, not as much as the men, but we're paying attention.

the metrics over to your point over the last three or four years, we've grown exponentially in our purse and have grown exponentially in the partner investment because I think it's highlighted now and there's more awareness about the potential to, I don't think we'll ever achieve full parity, but the notion of striving towards parity and helping to

solve challenges for our league has become quite an attractive hook for our partners to invest in and apply their products and services and their expertise to tell the story of how they helped us grow the league and modernize.

Steve Feuerstein (31:54.638)
By the way, in a perfect world, what would full parity look like?

Nicole Metzger (31:59.836)
One -to -one apples to apples, I guess, right? Why not? Everything. Look, you know, look at the league P &L, right? In every revenue source and expense source and outside our league P &L, the ancillaries of other stakeholders and of course our athletes, the intangibles beyond just where the money flows, you look at

Steve Feuerstein (32:02.178)
So prize money, let's, can we break that down? Let's break that down.

Nicole Metzger (32:28.424)
As we were talking about earlier, the Tiger Woods effect. Why can't we have the Tiger Woods effect? It's not that we haven't had the athletes. We just haven't had, in some cases, the platform.

Steve Feuerstein (32:42.35)
You know, it's interesting. I had the pleasure of working with Annika when she was number one in the world in 2006. It was the only, if I remember, I'm a little out, I haven't followed the progress in New York City golf, but at the time it was the only pro event in the history of golf in New York City. I built a provisional golf course on Governor's Island right off of Wall Street.

And in 2006, Anika coupled with Natalie Golbis, I brought in Tiger's coach at the time, Hank Haney and his team. And believe it or not, this is 206 guys. I had Tom Watson playing with Donald Trump and it was kind of a battle of the sexes, if you will. Let's go to that for a moment. With Anika, so much of the focus was on her ability to really compete against men. It was one of her just dominant golf.

ability. She was a phenomenal golfer. But also the nuance of, and it kind of disturbs me as I think about it talking about with you, that her part of some of her, in fact, there's one of our CMO, Dave Wharton, he was at the event actually, he was involved with it. And the idea that perhaps her greatest claim to fame, if you will, and she has so many, I mean, she is such an accomplished super pro.

superstar and dignified woman. But really, I think what registers in so many minds of those who were around at the time is perhaps the time that, you know, there she was, you know, trying to contest in that context. Are we beyond that moment in women's sports with what we've seen in the WNBA, with what we've seen in women's soccer, with what we are seeing in the LPGA, that we're no longer tethered to those type of

Nicole Metzger (34:07.946)
Yes.

Steve Feuerstein (34:35.144)
male oriented references to be taken as truly legitimate, if you will.

Nicole Metzger (34:43.306)
I wish I could say we're beyond it. My belief is we are not beyond it. We still have a long way to go. We've made some progress in the last few years. Certainly when I was spending my time at the NBA and the league office, I spent a lot of time with the WNBA and was in helping to find Jersey partnerships and

marquee partners for our teams. And it was, it was hard. It was hard to get an audience. the environment today that we're experiencing within the LPGA, we're getting inbound calls. We're getting inbound interest, but is it at the same level as our male counterparts, the same investment level? It is not. and

Steve Feuerstein (35:39.15)
Do you believe, by the way, Nicole, do you believe that's because just the factual number of male golfers amateur in the country of the 25 million, if I remember correctly, the number should be around 75 % are male, 25 % are female. Do you think that's a legitimate perhaps factor as to what might contribute to that or what are those factors that you do believe contribute to what you just described as being a deficiency?

Nicole Metzger (36:06.452)
think that you have the intangible, the social norms. still a bias there, no question. As a buyer, a marketer, you have to look at the metrics. And when you compare our metrics, key metrics, broadcast exposure, time on air, network versus non -network, the total membership to your point, the attendance on sites, the social engagement and the full media matrix.

when you compare side by side metrics, the men's tour is stronger, but not proportionally to the investment levels that are in play right now. So that is.

Steve Feuerstein (36:48.8)
It's a pound, dollar for dollar, pound per pound value generated.

Nicole Metzger (36:52.608)
That's right. So our team's responsibility is to bring light to that and to educate and to inform using data and not emotion and heart. But showing that that value, believing in it and demonstrating the value where the marketplace has misconceptions. And I do think it's all the underpinning is still social norms.

while evolving, we still just have a long way to go. There's no other way to put it. We're not where we should be, could be, or will be. But we see there's light at the end of the tunnel. every professional league within women's sports right now that I've talked to has that same hope and excitement about what's around the corner.

Leveraging the momentum the right way is the secret sauce for all of us.

Steve Feuerstein (38:00.462)
The secret sauce if you and I were sitting with a CMO right now of a Fortune 500 company and they said, Nicole, and I was carrying your briefcase for you today, your laptop. They said, Nicole and Steve, you know, we get a lot of propositions. We get proposed by not only women's leagues but men's leagues. There are new leagues coming to the fore that we never even heard about before.

We seem to have international opportunities that we didn't consider before that might even be beyond national. We're looking at an international strategy of implementation. What would be maybe the top two or three if I had to give the most compelling reason for a brand, all things considered, it's the right fit. What would be the top two or three reasons that the LPGA would be the smartest place for them to generate value?

Nicole Metzger (38:51.786)
Well, it's not one size fits all, of course, but in general, we will have delivered the data story on what the return looks like for them. What does success look like and how is our environment connecting to delivering on those objectives? Your more standard objectives are providing an environment to generate leads and business back.

Another general, again, generalizing, not necessarily one size fits all, deliverable, that is a competitive advantage for us with our brands. Because we are a growing league and modernizing and re -engineering, we have a lot of strategic initiatives, priorities, and challenges that we're investing in as a league. So there's an opportunity

to work with the LPGA in a business capacity, to apply a brand's products and services and expertise and wherewithal, to help us achieve our, help us, the LPGA and our athletes achieve our goals and to grow the league and to exponentially grow the league, which is our expectations and the.

Steve Feuerstein (40:09.462)
And that growth is defined, if you will, won by prize money. Are we talking about incremental number of tournaments, broadcast? Would you just put some of those metrics behind that? What does growth mean to you?

Nicole Metzger (40:18.464)
Yes, that's right. Growth to us, double revenue by 2030. So in key areas of prize money for our athletes, revenue and resources to help our athletes reach their peak performance. You can go all the way through the journey of what that looks like for athletes, but as they're working to get onto the tour, while they're on the tour and while they're exiting the tour, there are some milestones of that journey, all of which

As a league, we feel it's our obligation to provide a good experience and resources to our athletes in those three key milestones. All within that are opportunities to find the right partners to help us achieve those goals. It could be things, just for context, could be things like better physio on site or childcare services on site or medical insurance for our athletes and better.

better attention to female medicine and health and wellness initiatives, right? I'm throwing a litany of things out there. In our league strategic goals, another key area, improving our media landscape and our broadcast structure, leaning into a more sophisticated media matrix of digital, non -traditional streaming access to storytelling content.

promotion, so forth. Growing our league revenues so that we can invest in technology. One key investment in technology that will be a game changer for our league that we're working on right now is investing in enhanced scoring technology. So what that will bring is shot level data for athletes so they can better understand their performance in real time.

And also that data and information is a great platform for our fans and creates a wonderful engagement opportunity with the fan base, both on site, on broadcast, and digitally. There are so many spokes within this massive strategic planning process that we're working on as a league that as a brand looking to invest and partner, this creates a unique opportunity to really showcase

Nicole Metzger (42:43.754)
create a true case study for what makes a brand unique and different and how they helped us solve a problem and modernize the league and propel us forward. And what a great use case study at professional sports league is interesting, exciting, and relatable and connects again to that loyal audience, fan -based consumer that will help maybe a

more mundane product story, bring it to life and have a connection point to it by our general consumer that might not have an opportunity to learn about the benefits of this company or this brand in any other capacity.

Steve Feuerstein (43:34.658)
Social impact, just as we come to a close here and you've been very gracious with your time. So I appreciate it very much. could listen for many more hours. But let's shift over for a second. I'll edit this part out. But Nicole, when you look at social impact, golf for me growing up in America and having lived overseas and seeing golf.

over such an evolution of its power in communities. Social impact, social responsibility, we saw the upsurge after the tragedy of George Floyd and what took place in our country with the recognition that there has to be more and more engagement, particularly for athletes and social responsibility, recognizing that, for brands, if you permit me, that I want to be a part of an athlete, but I want an athlete that does more than play ball.

Right? I want an athlete that transcends the field or transcends the court or transcends the course. As an LPGA, how fundamental, just guide us if you will on some of the fundamentals of where the LPGA is engaged on community give back, community fostering, what is its primary vision in social responsibility.

Nicole Metzger (44:58.292)
Right. Well, it's embedded in the mission of the LPGA. Not only are we striving to be a best in class professional sports and entertainment property, but we're striving to grow the game of golf across the globe and make it more accessible to communities that don't have access. So in the tactical plan of that mission and vision, we have a foundation.

We are unique as a league in this way that we're not just the tour, we're also the membership of AMS and pros in developing the game through our partnership with USGA and Girls' Golf. And our strategic priorities include more grassroots efforts in communities around the globe to grow the game and make it more accessible.

and develop a pipeline and a feeder system to why not, not just to the game itself, but to the potential of becoming an elite athlete within the game and getting the right tools within underprivileged communities to have access to that level of development training. It's very much

embedded in the purpose of what we do every day as a league and how we make decisions. That purpose and social impact is front and center of each step we take on the commercial side and the business model is always grounded in the ultimate vision and mission of impact and growth of the sport.

Steve Feuerstein (46:51.086)
Just one supplemental. When you look at all the brands you have as title sponsors, if you were giving advice to a brand that was sponsoring one of your individual events, and not the Kroger, not the Walmart, not the BMWs, but they were a part of it, they were very important part as official partners of that particular event, what would you say is probably from your 22 -year journey

as marketing intern in 2002 to now one of the leaders of the LPGA, what would be your clarion call to them to make this worthwhile? You're not the title sponsor, but you're very important here, and I don't want you to churn. We want you long term. We know there is value proposition here. What would be that message? What do they need to do?

Nicole Metzger (47:44.724)
Lean in, participate and believe in what we're striving to accomplish together. There is a journey to meet those goals and it is not a transactional relationship. There's an opportunity to grow a league and to provide a depth of value to professional athletes. In turn,

helping a brand grow their brands and bottom line. And we don't get there independently. We get there together. The partners that are excelling and meeting those goals and expectations are partners that are true fans of the game, understand our complex business, and are an advisor to the business side of this sport.

and truly roll up sleeves and get into the weeds of what needs to be shaped and molded to help us continue to move forward and activating against what we've programmed.

Steve Feuerstein (48:59.426)
Is there a Mount Rushmore without discriminating against, there are too many to mention, but if there was one example, Nicole, where you said, here's an example of a brand that I think a lot of people can learn from. We're all about trying to show comparative, if you will, a collegial learning from other sponsors. I want to learn from those who have done it well. So is there someone who's leaned in, a brand that has leaned in that you might be able to...

Nicole Metzger (49:04.522)
Yeah

Steve Feuerstein (49:27.852)
just showcase for a quick minute and give us a sense of what that meant to them.

Nicole Metzger (49:31.692)
We have some case studies that we are very proud of, the one that I will, love all your partners equally, but the one I'll showcase today, since I'm only allowed to pick one, will be our longest standing partner of 50 plus years, Rolex. They embody everything that I just mentioned.

Steve Feuerstein (49:43.255)
you

Nicole Metzger (49:58.708)
They care about the sport. They care about the evolution of the sport. They believe in our mission as a league and they believe in the value that shared values bring to their business. That storytelling, the platform that we present to allow a brand like Rolex tell their story, deliver on their brand promise through

the adjacent proxy of the partnership of within GoF and the LPGA.

Nicole Metzger (50:35.36)
that testament to the 50 plus years together and the evolution of how we've partnered over time and the value back to the partner's brand. In my career, I have not seen a long standing partner of that tenure and any other sports league. I think that says something. There's some magic there. And in knowing our partner of Rolex, I think the starting point is they believe in it so much.

and they believe in their role to help our business grow forward. And they're seeing results back to the key objectives that we're set out to accomplish for them.

Steve Feuerstein (51:17.622)
Refreshing. I don't know if I've ever heard someone articulate representing a property. The first and foremost is alignment with vision. I mean, there's a lot of pressure to generate revenue. And sometimes we're not so concerned about necessary alignment of vision. And you've mentioned that many, many times in our discussion today. And I certainly feel viscerally how important that is to you and your colleagues.

at the association. By the way, I heard you were in Paris, as I noted earlier, for the Olympics. Anything you saw that just floored you, that you just said that was really well done in the realm of, since we're on sponsorship.

Nicole Metzger (51:56.992)
The whole thing. Yes, the whole thing. mean, even before I got there, the opening ceremonies, know, my time in 1996, opening the Atlanta Olympics, I certainly have a particular soft spot for opening ceremonies. The Made for TV event that it was, both opening and closing ceremonies, I think was something really special to see. When we got on site,

This is fairly typical for Olympics. You have venues that are very spread out, but the opportunity to see Paris in so many different facets, the amazing venues that they chose for all the historical reasons and how they set up, one that comes to mind as a by way of example is beach volleyball under the Eiffel Tower, right? You just have these picture perfect settings.

that only Paris could do in the way Paris did. Our golf course was amazing. The attendance and the just level of excitement was visceral everywhere, including in golf when sometimes it can be quiet and stagy. We felt very much like a Solheim Cup or Ryder Cup, you know.

fandom on site and the athletes too carry that same gravity of importance and pride for their country.

Steve Feuerstein (53:33.422)
Any notes that you sent home to your commissioner, Malory, regarding, you know, we need to consider the following. Was there any takeaway, anything that you left with that said, you know, we could, I learned something either in event management or in sports marketing that I might want to try and see how this could work for the LPJ. Was there any of that takeaway? I know we're not going to be playing 18 holes, you know, on the Champs -Élysées.

but at the end of the day, maybe the Louvre, I don't know, it's a pretty big place. I mean, did it spark any creativity, any notes home to the team that said, I got something here, it's a nugget we should consider?

Nicole Metzger (54:15.806)
It did. There are some actually more basic that were good reminders for us. I think the peacock effect is as we're in the journey to evolve our media landscape, media rights, and looking into a more integrated media mix, how peacock was activated and the fact that the consumer could access any sport within the platform.

It's just a good reminder for us that there's not just one way to gain broadcast exposure. And with a sport like golf, we have four days every week and multiple groups, right? Going through 18 holes. So as a fan, it's kind of hard to follow your favorite player or to follow the action. So I think while we don't have

The answer, it started wheels turning for me that there's an opportunity to lean more into streaming space for featured groups, more showcase, even have.

an opportunity for a fan to follow their self -selected athlete on the course. So choose your own adventure type programming. The production of that, that made for TV production, takes a lot of investment. we are certainly, we've got a long way to go to get to that. But I think it's a great analogy or best practice to use as an example of what's possible. And in a sport that

that is applicable to how you could access Peacock, look at, you could watch Breaking or you could watch Volleyball or you could turn to the Equestrian channel. Why can't we have something similar that is a channel for each of our athlete groups and each hole and as a fan experience, you can just follow along how you would like to follow along on the broadcast and bring that through streaming.

Nicole Metzger (56:34.6)
we feel there's an opportunity to lean into the Olympics more. We have the next event in LA in the domestic markets. There's an opportunity to surround that event with the LPGA. It's very unique to the Olympics that a league like the LPGA, most of the athletes that were competing are athletes on tour, right?

So there's something there to lean into and to bring our partners more into the space where we can, of course, within the right IP rights. And then the last takeaway for us was just the, again, the heartbeats and the pride and how meaningful winning a medal is and was to the athletes and our athletes.

And having that level of competition into the regular season tour, we have opportunities in some of our tent pole or special events like a Solheim, but why not create more events that have an elevated level of competition or gravity to the earnings that made for TV moments is an opportunity for us to do more with.

Steve Feuerstein (57:57.868)
Nicole Metzger, Chief Sales and Partnerships Officer at the LPGA. I have to tell you, you are about as authentic as they come. you know, I think it's clear that the association is privileged to have you, but I kept on thinking the whole time from the brand side, the inordinate amount of time that you and your colleagues are spending.

Nicole Metzger (58:06.644)
Ha ha.

Steve Feuerstein (58:24.462)
I mean, to me, sounded like you had a staff of 5 ,000. I've just, you kept on saying every brand is unique. And I'm quantifying how many people does she have structuring collaboration agreements to match the needs and KPIs of these particular massive corporations that have very serious high level needs, very intensive, an enormous amount of pressure to deliver value.

Nicole Metzger (58:29.696)
I wish.

Steve Feuerstein (58:54.548)
attempting to generate where we are in that transition with technology today on being able to show value generated in a very objective way without that subjectivity, without that skin in the game. I have an agenda and today people are starting to realize there's so much value to bring to the table. There's so much left on the table as well that they that they can achievably accomplish next time around. So, I mean, what a what a dynamic

representation and I hope we'll do this again. It was an inordinate pleasure for me and I thank you again for joining us on the transaction report.

Nicole Metzger (59:32.062)
Well, thank you for having me. It's been fun.

Steve Feuerstein (59:35.448)
It's been fun. So Chandler's going to come on just one last second. And good stuff, Nicole.