FBR Open Sees Solid Attendance, Usual Strong Corporate Sales

Over 500,000 Attend FBR Open In Scottsdale

An announced crowd of 93,475 attended Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour’s FBR Open in Scottsdale, Arizona, up from 82,150 for last year’s final round, according to Bill Huffman of the EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE. The event drew a crowd of 507,900 fans for the week, down from 536,767, but the tournament’s fourth-best overall attendance despite “weather issues earlier in the week” (EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE, 2/5). In Arizona, Dan Zeiger notes the 93,475 was a Super Bowl Sunday record, and the event “still had its trademark party atmosphere, but minus the annoying congestion. You could walk along the course and not feel like part of a herd of cattle” (EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE, 2/5). NBC’s Dan Hicks noted the crowd of 162,750 on Saturday was the “fourth-largest single-day crowd in tournament history” (NBC, 2/3).

CORPORATE HOSPITALITY: NBC’s Jimmy Roberts noted the 16th hole features 133 corporate boxes and “contributes more than $5[M] in revenue to the bottom line of this tournament” (NBC, 2/3). In Arizona, Donna Hogan noted the FBR Open features “nearly three-dozen Corporate Village tents of varying sizes and 200 skyboxes.” The tents lease for $32,500-70,000 per week “and as much as double that if you include the cost of the food,” while the skyboxes run for $32,500-47,500. Companies with corporate hospitality at the event included US Airways, Cigna, DHL, IBM, Honeywell, Talley Defense Systems, SRP, Coca-Cola, Avnet, Sara Lee, Vestar, Grubb & Ellis, Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan and “just about every major U.S. bank or top financial services firm” (EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE, 2/3).