The Economic Impact Of A PGA Championship
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Hey Golfers —
Major championships are unique from several standpoints, and this is no different from the business side. They present a unique economic opportunity to the local community they are played in.
Most large metropolitan areas offer ample opportunities for fans to watch professional sports. Golf’s majors often travel to cities without professional sports teams.
Since 1990 — the PGA Championship has visited several communities that do not feature a major professional sports team. And the four most visited cities the PGA Championship has visited in that timeframe do not have a major professional sports team.
Louisville, Kentucky — four
Rochester, New York — three
Tulsa, Oklahoma — three
Kohler, Wisconsin — three
Below is a look at cities the PGA Championship has visited since 1990.
For context, below are the metro population numbers for each of the four cities.
Louisville, Kentucky — 1.36 million
Rochester, New York — 1.06 million
Tulsa, Oklahoma — 1.03 million
Kohler, Wisconsin — 118,000
It’s worth mentioning that the Ryder Cup visited Louisville and Kohler during the same time frame.
Hosting a major championship is incredibly impressive.
Kentucky has hosted four major championships and a Ryder Cup since 1990. Its total population is 4.5 million. To put that in perspective, Texas has hosted six major championships and hasn’t hosted a major since 1969. Texas has 30 million people.
But that will change in 2027, as the PGA Championship will visit Frisco, Texas, to play PGA Frisco. In the coming years, PGA Frisco will feature several PGA Championships.
Louisville Tourism expects the PGA Championship to have an estimated $80 million economic impact on the area. Over 200,000 fans were expected to attend the tournament. The 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla brought $12 million in new spending during the week, leading to hotel room bookings equivalent to 16,000 nights.
So, how does a PGA Championship stack up against previous tournaments?
The $80 million estimate is the lowest in the last three events.
Economic impact studies are widely debated among economists, so we won’t know the final impact for several months. But we do have a baseline from the 2007 PGA Championship, which Southern Hills hosted.
That number? $70 million.
Adjusted for inflation — it is $105 million today. The $80 million estimate for Louisville is undoubtedly reasonable.
Going back nearly a decade, only a couple of local economies reported the final local economic impact of the PGA Championship. For example, the 2013 PGA Championship at Oak Hill reported $102.1 million.
Most local economies were expected to receive around $100 million for the PGA Championship. While Charleston, South Carolina, estimated nearly $200 million before the pandemic cut into attendance numbers at the 2021 PGA Championship.
Cincinnati is the closest city to Louisville that features multiple major sports teams. All professional sports teams in Cincinnati contribute an estimated $550 million to the local economy. FC Cincinnati has an impact of $37 million on the local economy.
The bottom line is that hosting a PGA Championship brings a significant amount of money to the local economy. And several of these areas don’t offer a major sports team.
The PGA of America will not visit mid-market cities in the near future. Here are the metro areas for the next six sites.
Charlotte — 2025
Philadelphia — 2026
Dallas — 2027
San Fransisco — 2028
Newark — 2029
Washington DC — 2030
The PGA Championship returns to the Charleston area in 2031.
Have a great Monday. We are taking next week off due to the holiday. We'll talk to you in a couple of weeks!
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Your map raises a couple of interesting questions: What does the PGA have against the West? Are their TV partners driving this clear bias?
Economic impact is an interesting concept. While an event may generate lots of spending, much of that might just be substituting for other retail or entertainment spending that would have happened anyway. There are multiple studies that show that taxpayers subsidizing professional sports stadiums never pay off. All that said, there is no doubt the PGA Championship benefited Louisville due to the many people from outside the area who visited. Contrast that with the Byron Nelson which had only a modest impact at best.