Golf's greatest team event not immune to global downturn

GOLF RYDER CUP 2010:THE TENTACLES of the current global financial downturn appear to have enveloped the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor. Although the tournament organisers have claimed that the biennial clash of Europe and the USA is a sell-out, the evidence of daily attendance figures to date and the ready availability of tickets indicate that there isn't a substantive correlation.

It seems that travel agencies and sports specific ticketing websites could take a bath in financial terms, a plunge that could see them left with significant numbers of unsold tickets. Ryder Cup Limited sold 45,000 tickets for the three days of the tournament and 30,000 for each of the three practice days.

On Tuesday roughly 19,000 spectators made their way to the Welsh course to take in the first day of practice and given yesterday’s awful weather, while the numbers were up, it wasn’t fully subscribed in terms of those who had purchased tickets to see the teams tune up for a second day.

The demand for corporate hospitality is down on the record-breaking figures at The K Club in 2006 and the indications are that some of the tickets that would have been tied into those packages were redirected for public sale. Hotels rooms in Cardiff are still available for a more modest figure than the prices that were initially quoted.

There is also a ready supply of tickets (four-day passes, Thursday to Sunday) for the tournament based on inquiries to ticket distribution websites and over the next 48 hours prices are destined to fall further in an effort to minimise financial losses.

Killester Travel’s Paddy Baird offers more empirical evidence. “We have been involved with selling Ryder Cup packages since 1991 and would have a good feel for the market. This year’s tournament has been the toughest to sell by some distance.

“We decided to do single-day return packages (they also did two- and three-day ones) but have already had to cancel a lot of seats on flights. We have had to work incredibly hard to sell our allocation and still have tickets available.”

Those include a single-day return package for the final day of the tournament, Sunday’s singles matches, that was originally priced at €569: it is now available for €350, an attractive last-minute proposition.

Sunday is arguably the most appealing day to attend the Ryder Cup for a variety of reasons, one of which is the fact that it is easier from a viewing perspective with 12 matches on the course rather than four (morning and afternoon) on Friday and Saturday. It also provides the tournament finale. It should be an attractive package but, as the price decrease of €219 on the day trip indicates, the interest just doesn’t seem to be there. It won’t unduly worry the tournament organisers because they have maximised revenue in terms of ticket sales but for those travel and ticket companies who bought on the strength of the appeal of the Ryder Cup it will be a different tale.