S.F. Board Mulls President's Cup at Harding:

[Mike Benham]

S.F. Board Mulls President's Cup at Harding:

President's Harding Park

"A lot of people feel burned from 2002 and the way (the) whole Harding rebuild went down," Elsbernd said. "All sorts of promises were made, many of which didn't come true. I think there's a feeling of 'We don't want to touch anything to do with golf.'

"But no matter where we go with golf as a whole, we don't survive without the PGA Tour's presence. Honestly, how do you charge $155 for a weekend round (for out-of-towners) without saying this is where Tiger has played and where Tiger is going to play?"

[Phil_the_Author]

If this was such a "rousing success" why was attendance only in the "20,000's"?

Who limited the size or were tickets unsold?

[John Keenan]

I was there on Sunday and was told it was sold out.

Unclear about the other days. I would suspect that given the players involved attendance should not be an issue.

[Kevin_Reilly]

If this was such a "rousing success" why was attendance only in the "20,000's"?

Who limited the size or were tickets unsold?

Limited parking, close confines on the course (particularly the front nine) would have made it impractical to have more spectators than the 20k's.

[Joel_Stewart]

This would be perfect if the board in their short sightness ignores the $30 million in revenue to the city and backs out.  The one fact I found interesting is the PGA tour only has to pay the city $1 million per event but $500k of that has to go to the first tee program.

The city's gross is $500k but costs exceed $600k plus.

[Matt_Cohn]

What's the politics of this? Is there really a chance that the city could say no?

[Mike Benham]

This would be perfect if the board in their short sightness ignores the $30 million in revenue to the city and backs out.  The one fact I found interesting is the PGA tour only has to pay the city $1 million per event but $500k of that has to go to the first tee program.

The city's gross is $500k but costs exceed $600k plus.

Joel, let's remember that the PGA Tour was the one who figured that the tournament brought in $ 31 million in revenue to the city.  They are the same bunch that spent all that money to rennovate Harding so you should be wary of those figures.

The $ 31 million in revenue works out to almost $ 1,500 spent per fan, crew and professional golfer for the week.  Since we know that a majority of the 20,000 fans were locals, they wouldn't be spending as much money on hotels and resturants, that number really climbs for the out-of-towners.  

I assume the $ 31 million includes the sales and hotel taxes generated directly for the city, which is probably nets close to $ 1 million.

[Kevin_Reilly]

Since we know that a majority of the 20,000 fans were locals,

That was a per-day figure, so the number of different folks who attended over the week was higher.  But by how much, I haven't a clue.

[Scott Stearns]

I think the city has mismanaged harding park--allowing the course to go 50% over budget is malfeasance bordering on criminal.

I think that paying the city $500,000 for using the course is the equivalent of stealing an old lady's purse---the city fathers are too stupid to get a decent return on the course---they should get $1 million, or not do it at all.

But mostly i am tired of hearing politicians in SF complain abt "broken promises"--nobody promised that you could enrich every contractor at harding park, allow the locals to play for $46 bucks after a $26 million renovaton, and then have the tour make up the difference.

[Mike Benham]

But mostly i am tired of hearing politicians in SF complain abt "broken promises"--nobody promised that you could enrich every contractor at harding park, allow the locals to play for $46 bucks after a $26 million renovaton, and then have the tour make up the difference.

Scott -

Then you will love the follow-up article this morning ...

More Harding debate