The Great Canadian Sports Attendance, Marketing and TV Ratings Thread

[Denscity]

Will the Canadian Open ever leave Toronto?

[megadude]

Damn. Just realized I posted my last comment in wrong thread. Meant to put in Sports in Canadian Culture, which I have now done.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Denscity

Will the Canadian Open ever leave Toronto?

It was played in Montreal in 2014, Ancaster in 2012, and Vancouver in 2011.

So yes.

The better question is: Will a Canadian ever win the Canadian Open? Last to do so was Pat Fletcher in 1954.

[king10]

Originally Posted by JHikka

It was played in Montreal in 2014, Ancaster in 2012, and Vancouver in 2011.

So yes.

The better question is: Will a Canadian ever win the Canadian Open? Last to do so was Pat Fletcher in 1954.

Hamilton(Ancaster) next year.

[megadude]

Now that the Open is being moved to an earlier date and not right after the British Open, it'll attract a better field. So it will in theory be harder for a Canadian to win it since so many of the top golfers in the world will be in attendance.

DJ only plays every year because of who his father in law is. And Bubba plays because his wife is from Pickering.

Mike Weir came damn close. Losing in a playoff. When we produce another player of that calibre, I like our chances.

[JHikka]

Golf Canada CEO pleased with Canadian Open ahead of location and date change
July 29, 2018
4:53 PM EDT

https://nationalpost.com/pmn/sports-...nd-date-change

Applebaum thinks this year’s Canadian Open — which saw a four-way tie atop the leaderboard between world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, Whee Kim, Byeong Hun An and Kevin Tway heading into the fourth round — is the perfect sendoff for the storied course.

“Beer sales are up, food sales are up, merchandise sales are up and attendance will be up,” said Applebaum, who predicted that total attendance for the week would be over 80,000. “For me, it’s a win across the board. Spectacular.”

Hamilton will host the 2019 and 2023 events, with Applebaum believing the host for 2020 will be announced within the next two or three months. His intention is to keep the men’s national championship in the Greater Toronto Area, while the CP Women’s Open will continue to move back and forth across the country.

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Golf Canada CEO pleased with Canadian Open ahead of location and date change
July 29, 2018
4:53 PM EDT

https://nationalpost.com/pmn/sports-...nd-date-change

Applebaum thinks this year’s Canadian Open — which saw a four-way tie atop the leaderboard between world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, Whee Kim, Byeong Hun An and Kevin Tway heading into the fourth round — is the perfect sendoff for the storied course.

“Beer sales are up, food sales are up, merchandise sales are up and attendance will be up,” said Applebaum, who predicted that total attendance for the week would be over 80,000. “For me, it’s a win across the board. Spectacular.”

Hamilton will host the 2019 and 2023 events, with Applebaum believing the host for 2020 will be announced within the next two or three months. His intention is to keep the men’s national championship in the Greater Toronto Area, while the CP Women’s Open will continue to move back and forth across the country.

Well there's the answer to my question "will the Open ever leave The Toronto area" and the answer is confirmed to be NO. Why not call it the Greater Toronto Open then?
Somehow the US Open moves all over the country.

[megadude]

I've read a lot of articles about the non-rotation of it over the past couple of years but have yet to ascertain a definitive reason for why it loses money when it's elsewhere. Then again, I'm not a big golf fan so I have no idea if organizers pay a hosting fee or what.

Golf Canada I'm guessing has to pay for all the temporary infrastructure at the course and the security and split much of the revenue with the host club. Other than that I'm not sure what other costs there are. There is of course the prize money, in this case $6m USD, but I'm not sure if that comes from the PGA via TV money or from the organizers.

I previously read that the Australian Open is rotated. I just looked it up, it's actually worse than Cdn Open. The last 12 have been in Sydney area, rotated among 5 clubs. 3 of 4 prior to that were in Melbourne. Have to go back to 2001 to Gold Coast to find another region.

It's practically all Syndey and Melbourne in the decades prior to that. Perth or Adelaide, etc. are almost no existent based on my rudimentary search (I wasn't about to click on every club on the wikipedia page).

So Canada's and Australia's Opens are very similar, which shouldn't be all that surprising given the similarities of our geographies and populations.

US has way more people and more of a golfing culture. Britain has the tradition, while also having more people in a far smaller land mass.

[megadude]

Come to think of it, it must be Golf Canada that puts up the prize money of $6M. RBC as title sponsor I'm sure contributes a big chunk of that.

As RBC is HQ in Toronto, their execs probably told Golf Canada to keep it nearby so they can schmooze with other execs without having to travel. It's already inconvenient enough that they have to do it in July for a few days instead of spending that time in their Muskoka cottage. And that is another reason the tournament is being moved to June. Their kids are still in school anyway so they can't take off to Muskoka for several days at a time. Note: I read something to this effect somewhere.

[osmo]

Air Travel, population density, and sponsorship reasons are why they keep the Canadian Open in the GTA.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by osmo

Air Travel, population density, and sponsorship reasons are why they keep the Canadian Open in the GTA.

Indeed. Along with those, convincing international golfers to travel to the GTA is a lot easier than convincing them to travel to Cape Breton or wherever else the Canadian Open may end up, even if those Cape Breton courses are insanely nice.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Indeed. Along with those, convincing international golfers to travel to the GTA is a lot easier than convincing them to travel to Cape Breton or wherever else the Canadian Open may end up, even if those Cape Breton courses are insanely nice.

Sorta. It probably wouldn't be that hard to convince them to travel to Montreal or southwestern BC.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Sorta. It probably wouldn't be that hard to convince them to travel to Montreal or southwestern BC.

The last time the Canadian Open was played outside of the GTA, Montreal, or Vancouver was 1976, when it was played in Windsor. So yes.

[megadude]

I've read about some proposals to put the Cdn Open on the west coast when the US Open is out west since they'll now be on back to back weekends.

2019 and 2023 US Opens are at Pebble Beach and LA CC respectively. Unfortunately, for Shaughnessey in Vancouver or that Mickelson designed course in Calgary, the 2019 and 2023 Canadian Opens are already set for Ancaster in Hamilton.

Until Telus or Enbridge become title sponsor, there's not much chance it's going out west anytime soon.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by megadude

I've read about some proposals to put the Cdn Open on the west coast when the US Open is out west since they'll now be on back to back weekends.

2019 and 2023 US Opens are at Pebble Beach and LA CC respectively. Unfortunately, for Shaughnessey in Vancouver or that Mickelson designed course in Calgary, the 2019 and 2023 Canadian Opens are already set for Ancaster in Hamilton.

Until Telus or Enbridge become title sponsor, there's not much chance it's going out west anytime soon.

Interesting you should bring up corporate sponsorships and their impact on locations. I think that's a fairly big factor, perhaps increasingly so.

If that's the case going forward I doubt we'll see the Canadian Open very often in Montreal in the future. Pro golf is fairly marginal in terms of interest in Quebec. I never hear people in my entourage talking about it, and we're mostly white collar guys. (Some of whom even play occasionally.) So it's doubtful a big Quebec-based sponsor would hitch its wagon to the Canadian Open. Unless it was one with a much broader Canadian reach like Air Canada.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Indeed. Along with those, convincing international golfers to travel to the GTA is a lot easier than convincing them to travel to Cape Breton or wherever else the Canadian Open may end up, even if those Cape Breton courses are insanely nice.

Well, that's the shame of it. Some of the best courses in Canada are on the east coast (especially PEI & CB). I understand the business rationale, but it's a pity that the rest of the world doesn't get to see that Canada has courses every bit as spectacular as Pebble Beach.........

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by megadude

As RBC is HQ in Toronto, .

Actually on the official corporate paperwork for RBC the headquarters is in Montreal. But we all know that bank is run out of Toronto and that that's where the true HQ is.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Well, that's the shame of it. Some of the best courses in Canada are on the east coast (especially PEI & CB). I understand the business rationale, but it's a pity that the rest of the world doesn't get to see that Canada has courses every bit as spectacular as Pebble Beach.........

Stop building nice golf courses in the middle of nowhere near no major population centre and maybe the World would see them more often.

Comparatively, Pebble Beach is only roughly an hour outside of the Bay Area. The same cannot be said for Cape Breton.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Stop building nice golf courses in the middle of nowhere near no major population centre and maybe the World would see them more often.

Comparatively, Pebble Beach is only roughly an hour outside of the Bay Area. The same cannot be said for Cape Breton.

Wasn't every place that is today "somewhere" at one time or another "in the middle of nowhere"?

[Pavlov]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Stop building nice golf courses in the middle of nowhere near no major population centre and maybe the World would see them more often.

Comparatively, Pebble Beach is only roughly an hour outside of the Bay Area. The same cannot be said for Cape Breton.

Cape Breton is a 57 hour drive from San Francisco.