Sunday, June 12, 2011

Tiger Woods’ absence hammers U.S. Open ticket prices

Even when Tiger Woods isn't the top golfer on the planet, he still remains the biggest draw in golf. With U.S. Open week just three days away, ticket websites have noticed a significant decline in the price of tickets for the tournament, something they all attribute to Woods' announcement that he wouldn't be teeing it up in the second major of the year.

The resale ticket decline has been staggering. As Bloomberg reported, StubHub reported four-day passes went from almost $500 to roughly $400 on June 7 -- that's good news for anyone interested in attending the U.S. Open -- which happened to be the day after Woods decided not to show.

"Missing Tiger is a big deal," StubHub spokeman Glenn Lehrman told Bloomberg. "He's a huge draw, not only for tickets, but also for television ratings."

Overall, prices have dropped more than 20 percent.�If resale outlets are hurting, you can imagine ticket scalpers are going to be suffering as well. There are still a lot of big names in the field next week at Congressional, but none of them have the same pull as Woods, who hasn't won a tournament since the 2009 BMW Championship.

We all talk about him not having the same impact on the sport as he did in years past, but based on these facts and figures, it's clear he still has a huge impact on other aspects of the game ... like ticket prices.

Tiger Woods's Absence Brings 20 percent Decrease in U.S. Open Ticket Resale Price [Bloomberg]

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