The Ryder Cup "will exceed" the $58-65M in revenues
"that were predicted to flow directly from the competition,"
according to information provided by officials who worked
"closely" with the PGA of America and cited by Gregg Krupa
of the BOSTON GLOBE. Paid attendance exceeded the expected
30,000 for each of the six days, as it neared 35,000, with
some estimating that 40,000 attended the Saturday and Sunday
sessions. Sales of PGA-licensed merchandise -- anticipated
before the event to be about $8M -- averaged $2M each of the
six days. Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau
President Patrick Moscaritolo said that he was still waiting
on financial figures from the PGA. Meanwhile, Krupa notes
NBC's record ratings for the event and writes that the
decision by Mass Mutual Life and Fidelity Investments "to
buy heavily into commercial time on NBC ... paid handsome
dividends." Mass Mutual Senior VP Eustis Walcott: "It ...
certainly exceeded our expectations" (BOSTON GLOBE, 9/28).
HAPPY FACES AT 30 ROCK: NBC Sports estimates that 55
million viewers ages 2-plus watched all or part of the
event, a 31% increase from the previous all-time high of 42
million viewers in '97. NBC's Saturday and Sunday two-day
Nielsen overnight average was a 5.4/14, up 32% from the
previous high of 4.1/12 in '97. West Palm Beach, FL, posted
the highest overnight rating with an 11.8/26 (NBC). In
Boston, Howard Manly writes that the ratings "proved that
golf -- yes, golf -- can capture a television audience as
well as those other sports do." WHDH-Boston's rating peaked
with a 19.3/42 at 4:30pm ET on Sunday, which "compares, if
ever so briefly," with the 19.9/29 the Giants-Patriots game
earned on WCVB-ABC that evening. Manly writes that "time
has proven that NBC Sports chairmen Dick Ebersol was
absolutely right to secure the network rights to the Ryder
Cup in 1991, even though few in America had ever heard of it
at the time." Meanwhile, USA Network "set its own Ryder Cup
record," with a 1.8 rating Friday, translating into about
1.4 million households (BOSTON GLOBE, 9/28).
BACKING JOHNNY MILLER: In Dallas, Barry Horn writes
that NBC Sports golf analyst Johnny Miller was "only doing
his job" in offering frank criticism of U.S. team members at
the Ryder Cup. Horn states that Miller "is as honest as
they come in the 18th tower, as willing to criticize as he
is to praise" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 9/28)
