Meet the geniuses at the PGA Tour.
PGA Tour official Ty Votaw sent an e-mail to reporters on Thursday that said the PGA will "revoke the on-site credentials of all journalists affiliated with outlets that post play-by-play coverage, whether those posts are originating from tournament site or otherwise."
That's right, kids. Stop your damn FREE PROMOTION OF OUR PRODUCT!
/slaps forehead in exasperation
Apparently, the PGA Tour did not like the fact that a certain fan with the Twitter handle @TigerTracker had the audacity to pay for tickets to Tour events with Eldrick in the field, and then meticulously tweet details of every Tiger Woods shot, chip, and putt.
You know, stuff people might actually want to know.
The PGA Tour, no doubt anticipating a future world in which golf fans pay a nickel for every tweet they get about Jeff Overton's 2nd round at the Humana Challenge, is making a heavy play here to tamp down rogue tweeting and (I suppose) re-direct hard core fan interest to their own website, PGATour.com. (Where they may just provide such lush, real time detail of every player from Steven Ames to Y.E. Yang.)
Never mind the fact that the PGA Tour just announced a "landmark" moment by allowing live computer streaming of weekend coverage of Tour events. Like a wayward drive, settling in on a steep cartpath, you know where this thing is heading - toward "All-the-time-and-anywhere" video access to the PGA Tour.
Which is great!
PGA Tour official Ty Votaw sent an e-mail to reporters on Thursday that said the PGA will "revoke the on-site credentials of all journalists affiliated with outlets that post play-by-play coverage, whether those posts are originating from tournament site or otherwise."
That's right, kids. Stop your damn FREE PROMOTION OF OUR PRODUCT!
/slaps forehead in exasperation
Apparently, the PGA Tour did not like the fact that a certain fan with the Twitter handle @TigerTracker had the audacity to pay for tickets to Tour events with Eldrick in the field, and then meticulously tweet details of every Tiger Woods shot, chip, and putt.
You know, stuff people might actually want to know.
The PGA Tour, no doubt anticipating a future world in which golf fans pay a nickel for every tweet they get about Jeff Overton's 2nd round at the Humana Challenge, is making a heavy play here to tamp down rogue tweeting and (I suppose) re-direct hard core fan interest to their own website, PGATour.com. (Where they may just provide such lush, real time detail of every player from Steven Ames to Y.E. Yang.)
Never mind the fact that the PGA Tour just announced a "landmark" moment by allowing live computer streaming of weekend coverage of Tour events. Like a wayward drive, settling in on a steep cartpath, you know where this thing is heading - toward "All-the-time-and-anywhere" video access to the PGA Tour.
Which is great!
So why clamp down on mere bloggers? Because the Tour is a bunch of overpaid bureaucratic idiots.
A recent analysis of the PGA Tour's non-profit form-990 showed that the top-19 pencil pushers in Ponde Vedra took home a collective $23 million in salary! Hell, 10 of them are annual MILLIONAIRES!
Some stuff from the 2010 form-990 which covered the 2010 calendar and fiscal year...
1 TIMOTHY FINCHEM Commissioner 5,227,497
2 THOMAS WADE Exec VP Marketing 1,846,398
3 CHARLES ZINK Co-Chief Operating Officer 1,689,249
4 EDWARD MOORHOUSE Co-Chief Operating Officer 1,688,920
5 RONALD PRICE Exec VP/Financial 1,334,891
6 HENRY HUGHES Former CEO THE PLAYERS 1,322,958
7 THOMAS PERRY SVP Human Resources 1,313,939
8 DAVID PILLSBURY President GCP & Champ Mgmt 1,009,107
9 SID WILSON Former VP Player Relations 1,002,440
10 TY VOTAW Exec VP Communications 997,575
I don't mean to get all "Occupy Wall Street" here, but you have to admire the structure of a
I guess you need two COO's, so one guy can cover when the other is out golfing.
So among the organizations beyond just uber-fans like @TigerTracker who are super pissed off and shaking their heads, are outlets like Golf.com who do a liveblog of Tour events and majors. (Highly enjoyable!)
Look, we get where the Tour is coming from. The official broadcast partners pay big bucks for the rights to live tournament coverage, and the Tour wants to protect this valuable product.
PGATour.com has Live@ streaming video and Shot Tracker and their own live blogs (see that, more promotion!). The Tour also announced earlier this week that it will be live-streaming its weekend broadcasts on PGATour.com and CBSSports.com, and the executives from the Tour and CBS want people to tune in. But it's unrealistic to think they can force people to only tune in to officially sanctioned options for real-time updates.
As proud as we are of our coverage, we realize that our live blog is a second screen, a complementary form of coverage that primarily serves to enhance the viewing experience of hardcore fans. Those who want to banter while they watch TV or an online stream may tune into our blog or check Twitter to get updates and see what our writers think, but few choose us exclusively.
Bans almost never work in sports media, and in this day and age, I guarantee this one has #fail written all over it.
But good job, Ty Votaw.
Take the afternoon off. You deserve it.
I believe PGA Tour is a Non-Profit too.
ReplyDeleteFunny, are they paying enough income taxes?