Pay Per View Tiger vs Phil Are you going to watch

Pay Per View Golf.   Tiger Woods playing Phil Mickelson on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  The event is going to cost $20 to watch.  The prize is going to be $9 million to the winner.  People for some reason are talking about this as a must see event.  If this event was happening 15 years ago I would be more likely to agree.  I would also be more likely to watch if Tiger and Phil were putting up their own money.   Tiger Woods is estimated to be worth over $700 Million.   Phil Mickelson is worth around $400 Million.  Tiger is 42 and Phil is 48 so they are not exactly in the middle of their prime anymore.  That part does not actually make it less interesting.  The less interesting part is the Pay Per View part.

I know $20 is not a boat load of cash.   You will probably get $20 worth of entertainment out of it.  It would cost less than two people going to a movie.  That is not the problem that I have with it.  The problem that I have with it is the actual idea of Pay Per View and what the implications are here.    This is not only an event to show case Phil Vs Tiger.  It is a test.  A test to see what people will pay for on top of what we are paying now.

Pay Per View Test

For me I am not interested in watching events Pay Per View.  I am pretty sure that I am not in the majority there.  This looks like it will be a good test.  I think it will be interesting to see how many people buy this.  Looking at some preliminary numbers.  If only 500,000 people buy this.  That comes out to $10 million.  That covers the purse already.   Not sure what the production cost are for this.  Probably around a million.  Maybe even a little less.  That would mean that anyone that buys this over the 500,000 would be almost all profit.  This does not take into account product placement and other advertisements.   I have no doubt that this will be a successful venture.

The Numbers are in their favor

With only needing 500,000 people to buy it to break even.  The number of viewers is so small that I am sure they will have no problem hitting that mark.   I would guess that the number will be much closer to a million that will pay out the $20 to watch.   They may be better off dropping the price to $5 or $10.  If they could double or tripple the number that buy it they could make even more money with the product placement.   Personally I am not interested.  I already pay the money for cable.  It is expensive and I don’t want to pay more for a single event.  Personally  I don’t want to pay more for an individual game either.   I have no problem with the commercials that pay for the entertainment that I consume.

I get the lure of Phil Vs. Tiger.  I don’t get it at this point in their careers.   What do you think?  Will you buy this?

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