Lagardère Sports, the new manager of the PGA Tour CareerBuilder Challenge, has "installed a new festival/entertainment model and slashed ticket prices" from $50 to $30 in order to "drum up fan interest in one of the tour’s oldest events," according to John Lombardo of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Organizers for this week's event have also "built a pavilion featuring local restaurants and for the first time will host live music with two concerts; one headlined by Huey Lewis and the News and the other by the Goo Goo Dolls." A total of four clubs "will be on site and entry to all fan activities is included with the $30 ticket price." The entertainment and pricing strategy at the CareerBuilder will be needed to help Lagardère Exec VP/Golf Events Jeff Sanders, who is running this week's tournament, "meet aggressive attendance expectations of drawing 20,000 fans per day." Last year, the event "drew around 10,000 fans per day over the four-day tournament" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 1/15 issue). In California, Larry Bohannan noted the addition of Lagardère to the tournament, as well as the addition in '17 of Phil Mickelson as tournament ambassador, are "moves to help bolster a tournament the PGA Tour would like to see get stronger and healthier." The Tour "doesn’t want to see 59 years of history and tradition in the desert disappear from the PGA Tour schedule." And with the changes for '18, the Tour and Desert Classic Charities are "taking steps to make sure the future of the desert’s PGA Tour event is strong for years to come" (Palm Springs DESERT SUN, 1/14).
