This week at the Bernadus Golf Club in the Netherlands the 20th Edition of the Solheim Cup will be played. This is a biennial competition played between 12 professional golfers from the USA and 12 from Europe. It is the female equivalent of the Ryder Cup. Both are highly visible golf competitions abnd garner large crowds and big TV audiences.
Following on from my prior posts about the economics of golf, let’s try and evaluate their economic impact. But first how can we measure economic impact? There are actually two different economic measures used in independent studies, and it’s worth distinguishing them:
- Economic impact – new money brought into the local or national economy through visitor spending (hotels, restaurants, transport, retail, etc.).
- Total economic benefit – economic impact plus the estimated value of global television exposure and destination marketing.
The second figure is much larger and is arguably more speculative, but it recognises that hundreds of millions of viewers are effectively watching a tourism advert for the host destination.
The Ryder & Solheim Cups
The Ryder Cup is now one of the world’s biggest sporting events outside the Olympics, FIFA World Cup and the major professional leagues. Its economic impact has grown dramatically over the past 30 years, and independent studies have become increasingly sophisticated. The Solheim Cup is much smaller in absolute terms but arguably delivers an exceptional return relative to its size, particularly in promoting women’s sport and golf tourism.
The Ryder Cup has evolved from a golf match into a week-long international festival, attracting hundreds of thousands of spectators and a global television audience.
*Independent regional estimates rather than a single standard methodology. European Ryder Cups have generally been evaluated using the same Sheffield Hallam eventIMPACTS methodology, making them more directly comparable.
Several trends emerge.
- The event has almost doubled in economic impact since the mid-2000s.
- Continental Europe has proved capable of matching or exceeding the traditional UK venues.
- Rome’s €262 million in 2023 is the largest independently measured Ryder Cup impact in Europe to date.
Like The Open (whose impact I investigated here), the Ryder Cup creates benefits far beyond ticket sales. Visitors stay for almost a week, corporate hospitality is extensive, and the host destination enjoys enormous international television exposure.
The Solheim Cup operates on a smaller scale, but its importance is growing rapidly.
Few host venues have commissioned economic studies as comprehensive as those for the Ryder Cup, but published estimates are summarised in this Table:
Although the headline numbers are smaller, the profile of visitors is remarkably similar to the Ryder Cup:
- longer average stays
- relatively affluent spectators
- significant international travel
- high hotel occupancy
- extensive media coverage
In addition, the Solheim Cup often leaves a legacy that is harder to measure financially:
- increased participation by girls and women
- enhanced profile for women’s sport
- stronger destination branding
- improved golf facilities.
The bottom line is that for the organisations that run the Solheim Cup and the Ryder Cup they represent hugely important income streams. The organising body on each host country/continent receives the lions share of the income. The PGA of America when the Ryder Cup is in the US, The DP World Tour (de facto the European Tour) when the Ryder Cup is in Europe. Similarly the LPGA when the Solheim Cup is in the US and the LET when it is in Europe. Without these income streams those organisations would be severely compromised!
Coda: But what about the President’s Cup?
But here is a strange fact: there is another Cup, The President’s Cup in which a dozen professional golfers from the USA compete with a dozen professionals from “the rest of the world” not including Europe, known as “The Internationals“. This is run by the PGA Tour! It is in some respects quite successful in that the next iteration to be held in Chicago later in September is “sold out” and revenues are strong. But what is not strong is the competition! It’s hugely one-sided! The USA having won all but two iterations , losing once and with one tied event: so a 14:1:1 record! Hardly inspiring stuff!
Why is the competition so one-sided? Lots of reasons might be cited. The lack of esprit de corps in the Internationals who come from many different countries and have little in common. On the other hand the same could be said of Europe in the Ryder Cup but there history comes into play. Another reason for the weak performance of the Internationals might be the requirement that International players must be PGA Tour Members meaning that the International team may not be the best 12 International players. The format is not quite the same as the Ryder and Solheim Cups and that may be significant. Whatever the liklihood is that this years Presidents CUp will be another “blow out” win for the USA.
So why do I raise this here? Well it strikes me that the “powers that be” that have influence in the running of The Presidents Cup and international professional golf could tweak the makeup of The Presidents Cup. Instead of a wholly male event, make it mixed! Over the past decade or so Asian women’s golf has been hugely successful. At present they have no “Cup” competition to play in. So what about creating a mixed gender competition and bring extraordinary female strength to The Presidents Cup. Some matches might be male v male, others female v female and others mixed events. This would potentially even up the odds of International success and create a fantastic vehicle for promoting women’s golf.
Over and above that it could surely enhance the financial impact of The Presidents Cup putting it on a similar level to the Ryder and Solheim Cups.
Just a thought . . .
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