Luxury Event Became a Lemon

It’s all over but the drying. If tournament sponsor Nissan could do anything about the fallout from the rain-shortened Nissan Open, it would ask for a money-back guarantee.

John Gill, director of sports marketing for Nissan North America, said the company wasn’t thrilled about paying the entire $4.8 million in prize money for a 36-hole tournament that isn’t even counted as an official victory for winner Adam Scott.

Scott’s win did not get him an invitation to the season-opening event in Hawaii for winners only, with the usual paycheck for last place around $50,000. Nor did it get him the usual two-year exemption on the tour.

“From a sponsor’s perspective,” said Gill, “it’s one thing to pay a full purse after only 36 holes and it’s another when you also have to see what didn’t happen and who didn’t really win.

“As a sponsor, you expect to pay full price for a completed tournament. I’m not happy about what happened. I’m sure a lot of people would like to work 50% of the time and get paid, but apparently the only place that happens is on the PGA Tour.”

Gill said he probably would seek a prorated-compensation clause from the PGA Tour when Nissan opened discussions about extending its sponsorship deal after 2006. The company had been expecting to negotiate a deal through 2010, but Gill sees some possible difficulties.

“It makes for a difficult conversation between the sales and marketing people with the financial people, who don’t quite understand why we’re paying so much money for something that isn’t even counted as an official victory.”

Rain washed out Saturday’s play and when the tournament was extended into Monday in an attempt to get in 54 holes, more rain forced cancellation of the round. Under PGA Tour rules, the scores reverted to the 36-hole totals and that forced a one-hole playoff between Scott and Chad Campbell.

It was the first time in the 79-year history of the event that it went less than 54 holes. That’s probably why Nissan did not carry any insurance against such events as took place here last weekend.

Scott won with a par on the playoff hole, the 18th, and raked in $864,000. Campbell, who hadn’t played since Friday, made a bogey and took home $518,400.

As distasteful as that was for Gill, he acknowledged that according to Nissan’s contract with the PGA Tour, even if bad weather curtails a tournament to only 18 holes, the full prize money will be paid.

“If one had grave concerns over [a full payout for] 36 holes, how do you think that person would feel about 18?” he asked.

“Really, there’s no fault on anyone’s part, but there needs to be some consideration given [in a new contract], like a percentage here and a percentage there.”

After a week of rain and mud at Riviera Country Club, there were other losses as well, many of them by the Junior Chamber of Commerce, which runs the non-golf end of the tournament. Most significant among them would be lost ticket revenue. No attendance figure was announced for Saturday’s lost round, but last year, 21,437 attended Saturday’s third round. Most of those tickets were pre-sold, but walk-up sales for the week were significant, with ticket prices at $25.

A crowd of 30,925 attended last year’s fourth round Sunday. This year’s event attracted probably less than half that total.

So, unsold tickets for the washout Saturday and the partial washout Sunday could amount to as much as $375,000.

The Junior Chamber of Commerce also takes a share of the merchandise sales and concessions and money from both categories was affected adversely.

“They got killed,” Gill said.

The nearby Paul Revere middle school, which is used for parking and gets all the revenue from that, also took a substantial loss.

Michael Yamaki, the chief corporate officer at Riviera, said there could be fallout involving corporate-hospitality sales next year.

“It might be a tougher sell now,” he said.

ABC was another loser, the network taking a hit with lower overnight Nielsen ratings because of the rain.

The rating for the rained-out Saturday was 1.4, compared to 3.2 for the same day in 2004. Sunday’s rating was a 2.9 compared to a 4.4 for the same day last year.

As for the course itself, it continues to take a beating. It was closed Tuesday and probably will remain closed until at least Thursday, according to Todd Yoshitake, Riviera’s professional.

“We’ve taken more water than we’ve ever taken,” said Yoshitake, adding that Riviera has been pelted by nearly 30 inches of rain in the last month.

To keep up with it during the tournament, Riviera’s regular ground crew of 33, plus 50 volunteers, worked long hours of duty. Overtime pay for the crew is built into the club’s budget for the tournament.

There might be no lasting damage to Riviera’s credibility, and its longshot prospects of landing a U.S. Open, which is played in June, remain unchanged. The club’s problems with providing enough space for the needs of an Open venue, such as corporate hospitality and parking, remain more a consideration than the chance of rain.

In the meantime, Gill said that at least the tournament was featured almost hourly on the Weather Channel.

“As far as impressions, you just can’t buy that space,” he said. “Look, this whole situation is nobody’s fault. Not the pros, not the PGA Tour, it’s just the way it is. You just hang in there and hope that one of these years, it’s going to be your year.”