The decision by Allianz and its sponsors to offer free admission this year is a hit with spectators at Broken Sound in Boca Raton.

BOCA RATON – What started out as a Free Friday last year at the third annual Allianz Championship Champions Tour event at the Old Course at Broken Sound turned into free admission for everyone at this year’s tournament – and everyone was in agreement that “free is better.”
Bob Goldsmith paid last year and said, “I’m willing to pay. We did last year. Well, actually Walter paid last year, but you get the idea.” Walter is Walter Goldstein who has been to each of the three previous senior events in Boca Raton and he agrees, “it’s nice not to have to pay.”
From a sampling of guests interviewed for this story who were on property, the consensus was that the folks at Allianz did well.
“I’m very happy not to pay,” said Ted Kurelitz, who like his friends Bob and Walter spent Friday of tournament week watching the same guys in person that they used to watch on television when they were on the regular PGA tour.
“They asked for donations for Haiti when we walked in, but I don’t know if that was their intent when they decided not to charge for admission.”
At last year’s event, tournament director Ryan Dillon offered free admission on Friday to Boca residents, and media director Rene Nuñez said there was about a 50 percent increase in attendance that day (from 8,000 in 2008 to 12,000 in 2009). So Dillon asked some of this year’s sponsors if they would ante up a few dollars more to cover the ticket revenue and, voila, free admission for everyone.
This year, Nuñez said, Friday attendance spiked to 16,000, with Saturday and Sunday drawing 23,000 and 28,000 to the course. For the week, attendance jumped from 67,000 in 2009 to 85,000 in 2010. Nuñez also said concession and merchandise sales doubled over 2009.
It appears that Pro Links Sports, which puts on the tournament, has a winner on its hands with the free admission.
Last year, after the successful Free Friday, the company offered free admission at their seniors PGA event in the Twin Cities in Minnesota and the response was, as expected, overwhelmingly positive.
According to an article published in Minnesota, Pro Links owner Hollis Cavner said, “My thought was, ‘This is the perfect time to give something back to people.’ We took the idea of free admission to Allina (Hospital, the main benefactor of the tournament) and they were all over it.”
A couple of snowbirds walking adjacent to the 10th fairway had no idea there was even a professional golf tournament going on in Palm Beach County until they read about it in the newspaper that morning and saw the free admission. They made a mad dash to the tournament to take advantage of the warm day (59 degrees) – or at least it was warm from where they came from, as evidenced by their shorts.
For Jackie Rainout, down with her husband Joe from Connecticut, the free admission didn’t make any difference because, “we’d come anyway. But I’m glad they’re doing it this year because of the bad economy.”
And with Boca Raton being a retirement center and a destination for folks up north to get out of the snow, the Champions tournament really is a seniors event.
“For sure,” Jackie said, looking around and seeing a majority of the attendees being in the over-50 (and sometimes over-60) crowd. “For most of these people, I don’t think the free admission will mean they will spend any more” on food or other items on site.
The tournament, in its fourth year, appears to be pulling from one of the main South Florida events – the PGA Tour stop at Doral – as numerous people were walking around with logoed wind shirts from what was once the Ford Championship at Doral, now the CA Championship.
“I’ve been coming to Florida for 23 years,” said Troy, N.Y. resident Ron Fountain while he waited by the 17th tee for Ben Crenshaw and Lanny Wadkins to arrive. “I used to go to Doral, but I don’t go anymore because there are no vendor booths. No free giveaways.”
Fountain held up his bag of goodies and said, “I’ve got a bag full of stuff here that I’ll probably never use and will probably throw most of it away when I get home. But it is all free stuff.”
Just like the admission.
Marty Perlmutter is president of LTS LeaderBoard of Miami/Ft. Lauderdale and lives in Miami. Send e-mail to LH@teetimesnews.com or call (954) 607-6325 to comment on this article.

Author: By Marty Perlmutter

Received: 2010-03-05 [y/m/d]

Item #734


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