Tyler Dennis: New PGA Tour player equity program has fans in mind | Golf Central | Golf Channel [Video]

0:01 | golf Central on YouTube is brought to

0:03 | you by the new Chrome tour golf ball

0:05 | from Callaway so let’s just give you a

0:07 | reminder of this timeline PGA Tour

0:09 | Enterprise is announced back on January

0:11 | 31st it’s a new for-profit Venture

0:13 | launched by PGA Tour and the SSG those

0:17 | investments into the Enterprises is

0:19 | worth up to $3 billion you’ve got nearly

0:22 | 200 PGA Tour members who will gain

0:24 | access to that 1.5 billion in equity in

0:27 | PGA Tour Enterprises it’s player Grant

0:30 | which vest over time based on Career

0:32 | achievements future participation and

0:34 | services and right now grants are only

0:36 | available to qualified PGA Tour

0:40 | players so for more on today’s

0:42 | developments we welcome in Tyler Dennis

0:44 | Chief competitions officer with the PGA

0:46 | Tour um Tyler thank you for making the

0:48 | time just give us a sense of what

0:50 | today’s news means for the PGA Tour

0:55 | membership yeah thanks and it’s it’s

0:57 | great to be speaking with you here from

0:59 | New Orleans on beautiful day at the zerk

1:01 | classic yeah it’s as as you said a

1:03 | minute ago this is really a historic

1:05 | moment for the PGA Tour so what’s

1:08 | happening today is there’s nearly 200 PJ

1:10 | tour members that are receiving the

1:13 | detailed information about about the

1:15 | player Equity program and that’s giving

1:17 | them the opportunity to become owners of

1:20 | their

1:21 | organization uh and you know really the

1:24 | big picture of this is this is a first

1:26 | in professional sports there’s no other

1:29 | sports League in the world that has this

1:31 | significant number of their athletes as

1:34 | owners of their own Sports organization

1:37 | and we’re really excited about it

1:38 | because ultimately we want to do what’s

1:41 | right for the fan we want to grow the PJ

1:43 | tour in many different ways and having

1:46 | the alignment of our uh players as

1:49 | player owners with the organization is

1:52 | going to allow us to drive that quickly

1:54 | forward we’re really excited about it

1:56 | and based on the information that

1:58 | players have learned today about their

2:00 | value like you said this is an

2:01 | unprecedented thing that we’re seeing in

2:03 | professional sports what has been the

2:05 | feedback so far that you’ve received

2:07 | from the

2:09 | membership I think I think there’s a a

2:12 | ton of excitement about it and that that

2:14 | really goes for everything that’s

2:16 | happened over the past few months you

2:18 | know you you mentioned for the viewers a

2:20 | few minutes ago the creation of PJ tour

2:24 | Enterprises a couple months ago we have

2:27 | the Strategic Sports Group which is a

2:29 | sorum of sports team owners across

2:32 | almost every major league in the world

2:35 | and the amount of knowledge they have

2:37 | the amount of expertise they have about

2:39 | other sports best practices that we can

2:41 | apply to golf is incredible uh the

2:44 | investment they’ve made into the PJ tour

2:46 | they believe in the product and we’re

2:47 | going to use that to uh invest in the

2:50 | fan you know we’re looking at a lot of

2:52 | things across how we deliver the sport

2:54 | on our platforms The Fan Experience a

2:57 | lot of other exciting initiatives and

2:58 | and that’s really what driving the

3:00 | excitement from the the membership so

3:03 | this the player Equity uh program

3:05 | information today is just another

3:07 | element of some really exciting times

3:09 | ahead it does seem like the fan as you

3:11 | mentioned is the priority should be the

3:14 | priority how engaged in this Equity

3:17 | program do you think the average golf

3:18 | fan will

3:21 | be well I you know it’s it’s really like

3:24 | I said about alignment and we don’t

3:26 | expect the the fans to be engaged in it

3:28 | what we do want is the uh players to be

3:31 | fully aligned with their organization

3:33 | like I said it’s something no other

3:35 | sport has done before and we’re seeing

3:37 | an incredible amount of excitement about

3:39 | that what it means for the fan is you’re

3:41 | going to have players fully aligned with

3:44 | thinking about what’s best for them how

3:46 | do we grow this sport you know

3:48 | ultimately uh and we talked about this

3:50 | in our pack meeting last week at length

3:53 | what what’s the best version of the PGA

3:55 | Tour you know fans want to see the PGA

3:57 | Tour lead professional golf forward

3:59 | we’re really focused on innovating that

4:01 | we haven’t Stood Still we’ve done a lot

4:03 | over the uh the last few months and to

4:05 | have the players directly engaged in

4:07 | that is is really the takeaway from what

4:09 | it means to be a player owner as part of

4:12 | this player Equity program so Tyler for

4:14 | those players who are not currently

4:16 | included in this program uh what have

4:18 | you heard what do you say to them what’s

4:20 | their

4:23 | reaction yeah I mean I’ve spent a lot of

4:25 | time uh you know with with all sorts of

4:28 | members this year we have a great uh

4:30 | class of rookies we have some returning

4:32 | members and the the the summary is it’s

4:35 | an incredible and exciting time to be a

4:39 | PGA Tour member you know that that with

4:41 | all of the things we’re excited about

4:43 | and building on our platforms as it

4:45 | relates the player Equity program the

4:47 | the PJ tour Enterprises board plans on

4:50 | issuing future equity and recurring

4:53 | grants uh which is an opportunity for

4:55 | our next set of stars out there so

4:57 | there’s a lot of excitement around

4:59 | everything we’re doing

5:00 | and in terms of those expectations now

5:02 | on the players who are part of this

5:04 | program how else are they expected to

5:06 | contribute to the tour’s growth to

5:08 | increase their value Beyond just playing

5:10 | in PGA Tour

5:14 | events well ultimately you know they we

5:17 | have an incredible Sport and that our

5:18 | athletes really care about it and

5:20 | they’re constantly every day thinking

5:22 | about how to improve our platform about

5:25 | our product it’s very unique and I’m

5:27 | here at the zura classic the proam is

5:29 | going on that’s a unique thing in sports

5:32 | and our athletes are out entertaining

5:35 | clients and sponsors that help us put on

5:37 | this tournament and ultimately drive a

5:39 | significant amount of Charity so so it’s

5:41 | sort of built into the sport but what

5:43 | we’re excited about is all the new

5:46 | things we can think about you know we

5:47 | mentioned uh the Strategic Sports Group

5:50 | and the expertise that those folks have

5:52 | across other sports our players are

5:54 | highly engaged uh we had a great player

5:57 | advisory Council uh meeting where where

5:59 | we talked about things from other sports

6:01 | that we’ve learned and so um you know

6:04 | it’s an exciting time and I think I

6:06 | think what we want them to do is play

6:07 | golf you know fans want to see them

6:10 | display their incredible skills on the

6:12 | course but being aligned with the

6:14 | overall goals of the organization is

6:15 | really what this uh latest announcement

6:18 | today is about yeah so these additional

6:20 | sort of requirements on and off the

6:22 | course in your opinion does that change

6:24 | the concept of PJ tour members being

6:27 | considered independent contractors in

6:29 | any way

6:32 | no it no nothing changes about that and

6:35 | all of the particulars about our model

6:37 | you know the schedule model we’ve

6:38 | deployed what players are striving to

6:41 | achieve out here that that’s what’s most

6:43 | important this this is a deeper more

6:45 | longer term thing of how do we improve

6:47 | the sport like I said earlier what’s

6:49 | what’s the best version of the PGA Tour

6:52 | and uh I’m excited because our players

6:54 | want to know that they’re thinking about

6:56 | that and ultimately it’s really the fans

6:58 | that have to help us drive that to to

7:01 | its future State and just a couple more

7:03 | questions Tyler I’m not sure if you’ll

7:04 | be able to answer this one but if the

7:06 | PGA Tour is able to reach a deal with

7:08 | the public investment fund of Saudi

7:09 | Arabia would a live player be eligible

7:13 | for the player Equity program in your

7:17 | opinion yeah you know that’s not

7:19 | something I’ll be able to discuss today

7:21 | I know commissioner Monahan addressed

7:23 | this topic generally uh during his press

7:26 | conference The Players

7:27 | Championship uh and you know we’re

7:29 | excited about the progress we’re making

7:31 | it’s accelerating certainly see a

7:33 | positive outcome and we’re keeping the

7:35 | fan front and center as we think about

7:37 | the future of of of the professional

7:39 | game and the BJ tour okay and just

7:41 | finally um looking at the Enterprises as

7:44 | a whole of course there’s been a lot of

7:45 | conversation behind closed doors how

7:47 | long do you think it will be before we

7:48 | see more sort of Hands-On involvement

7:51 | from SSG with the PGA Tour and its

7:55 | membership well they’re they’re

7:57 | incredibly involved already it’s it’s an

8:00 | amazing group of owners and investors

8:03 | that have an unbelievable amount of

8:05 | experience across the other sports

8:07 | they’re already highly involved uh in

8:09 | helping us think about this we’ve had a

8:11 | lot of productive discussions and uh you

8:14 | know them thinking about our business as

8:17 | an outside lens is helping the

8:20 | management team the players really think

8:21 | of it in a new way and also there’s just

8:24 | so many best practices and exciting

8:26 | things that we see in other sports that

8:27 | we can use to improve the PJ tour so you

8:30 | know I keep mentioning the fan uh that’s

8:33 | that’s on purpose the fan is an

8:35 | incredibly important focal point for us

8:38 | and we want to make the PJ tour as good

8:40 | as it can possibly be moving forward

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Tyler Dennis: New PGA Tour player equity program has fans in mind | Golf Central | Golf Channel [Video]

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