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January 15, 2008 - 3:08PM
FBR Open’s impact: $180.4 million
Donna Hogan, Tribune
The FBR Open, the annual January golf extravaganza that turns the Tournament Players Club in Scottsdale into a worldclass center of chip shots and commerce, left local businesses and tax coffers $180.4 million richer this year.
That’s according to a study completed by the W.P. Carey MBA Sports Business Program at Arizona State University and released Monday. It’s nearly $6 million more than the tourney’s economic impact in 2003, the last year tracked.
And likely a lot less than it will generate next January when the event gives VIPs in town for Super Bowl XLII a way to spend a sunny Saturday watching other pros play their sport.
“There will be huge tie-ins to the Super Bowl by the corporate community,” said Pat McGinley, 2007 FBR Open chairman and Big Chief of the Thunderbirds, the philanthropic organization that stages the annual tourney. “Based on sales to date, it will be even more impactful. The (combined) impact will be absolutely massive, but tough to segregate.”
The FBR Open, annually the most attended stop on the PGA tour, has already shown its popularity among the coveted corporate crowd, who put on elegant spreads in elaborate tents and skyboxes dotted along the fairways to entertain important clients from around the country.
The ASU study found that during last January’s tournament, attendees from outside the Valley spent an average $271 a day on hotels, restaurants and shopping, adding up to a whopping $61.8 million.
That doesn’t include money spent by the PGA, the golfers or the Thunderbirds. And it doesn’t include what the packed crowd of local golf lovers spend while they watch from the gallery.
“We are very pleased our event has such a significant impact on the Valley,” McGinley said. “This is not just a golf tournament. It’s a community event. No other PGA Tour event has such widespread appeal. It’s because this community embraces it.”
FBR Open numbers
• Total economic impact — $180.4 million
• Event staging and setup expenditures — $53.3 million
• Spent by local and out of town attendees and organizations — $127.1 million
• Direct tax revenue — $4.5 million
• Spent just by out of town visitors — $61.8 million
• Employment impact — equivalent to generation of 1,516 full-time jobs
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