FedEx Cup Underbelly
As far as pro golf goes, the FedEx Cup looks pretty interesting. It may transform 'silly season' into an exciting series of competitive events. With $10 million for first place, it's going to keep everyone interested. You won't see Tiger or Phil opting to stay home and practice their game in the backyard given those stakes. The rest of the tour will be there too, with next year's tour eligibility on the line. On paper, it certainly appears it could be quite entertaining, though you can never be sure what exactly what will happen in a newly designed competitive format until you try it.
So why would anyone be negative about something that holds so much promise. Is there something dark lurking just under surface, ready to ruin a good thing. Here's what I'm thinking:
I'm not a big fan of TV, but I do get excited about watching golf. My primary complaint against programming is the commercials. I remember when they use to come only on the quarter-hour, half-hour and hour. I wasn't crazy about them, but it was clear we all had to do a little suffering so someone could cover the costs of this great form of entertainment. That was the 50's and 60's.
I don't know where things really went wrong, but commercials have infiltrated every form of programming like a computer virus on steroids. On most every channel, you now have to watch more commercials than programming. On top of that, we generally have to pay to have someone stand in front of us and pitch us the same crap ad infinitum and at a higher volume.
So why should the Fed Ex Cup be different than any other golf coverage. Just consider for a moment - where is all this extra purse money coming from? Someone has to fund this new competition. In the end, it's always you and me. We pay for it by listening to commercials. And bigger purses, mean more advertising, which means more commercials and less real coverage.
I hope the FedEx Cup at least has a chance to succeed, but if it ends up meaning that I have to sit through 3 minutes of commercials for every 1 minute of golf, then they'll have one less viewer in Rhode Island.
2 comments:
Yes I suppose the money has to come from somewhere. So I agree I expect loads of commercials will be the prescribed dose.
I grew up watching Golf tournaments on BBC in the UK. No adverts and just endless hours listening to Peter Alliss whilst watching Golf at Wentworth or one of the British Open courses. Fantastic!. These days though most of the Golf in the UK is found on the commercial Sky Channels. It is great to be able to see all that Golf but I need to be constantly pressing mute or get bombarded by the oh too frequent adverts.
Jonathan
A Wireless Golfer
Jonathan, you had a wonderful childhood then. I was fortunate enough to live in Europe for awhile. The first time I watched BBC coverage of 'The Open' I was in shock. Just pure coverage, no commercials and commentators who knew enough to be quiet most of the time. It was bliss!
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