The event is attracting millions of viewers world wide and has made Australia the national focus due to a high profile draw card, Tiger Woods.
Victoria state premier John Brumby negotiated Tiger to attend the Australian Masters for an appearance fee of $3 Million, this sparked outrage at the Victorian government spending this kind of money just for a golfer. Could the money be spent better else where?
To understand this expense we need to break down the economic impact of an event like the Australian Masters Golf and the revenue it will bring back into the state and country.
Firstly Premier Brumby announced "Of the 100,000 tickets sold 30% of these have been sold to interstate or international guests", if the average traveler only spend $1000 on their entire trip to the Australian Master the will have contributed $30 Million to the Victorian and Australian economy, not a bad investment for outlaying $3 Million for Tiger Woods to play.
Additionally the broadcasting rights and sponsorship and marketing opportunities for an event broadcasts to over 300 Million people world wide are worth millions for the local economy, the merchandise stand alone at Kingston Heath Golf Course is expected to raise over a million dollars in four days.
Locally hotels, motels and restaurant's are full every night this week and guests visiting Melbourne are spending there time off shopping and visiting our tourist highlights. This all adds a strong economic burst to the Victorian and Australian economy.
It is important to to recognise the negative impact this event has had on Melbourne, traffic congestion is up and the focus has been taken away from the Australian Open, running just two weeks after the Australian Masters and is considered our premier golf event.
Peter Thomson, a five-time British Open champion "In my view it's going to do a lot of damage to our national Open which comes two weeks after this one in Melbourne, The Australian Open is our national championship, it is the most important event that we have".
Tiger Woods will not be competing in the Australian Open and having all of the media attention focused on the Australian Masters just two weeks before is sucking important sponsorship and media opportunities away from the Open.
A final thought on the $3 Million appearance fee commanded by Tiger Woods, although this is a small expense for an economic return of over $30 Million we can also take solace in the fact that he has to pay Australian tax on this appearance fee before it leaves the country.
Sites of Interest:
http://www.australianmasters.com.au/
http://www.kingstonheath.com.au/welcome/index.mhtml
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