Phil's "Feel" Idea Might Not Make LIV Win, But It Could Make Other Tours Lose
Mickelson gave interesting insights into venue fan experience in a short interview with Joe Pompliano of The Joe Pomp Show this week.
In the summer of 2022 a new word started doing the rounds on the social media platform then known as Twitter.
It came from a newsletter written by the popular social media economics commentator Kyla Scanlon.
Kyla called it the “vibecession”, the word a mash-up of vibes and recession. Scanlon’s argument, and it was a persuasive argument, was that while the data did not suggest there was an actual economic recession, how people felt — vibes — suggested that there was.
From the Wikipedia page about the phenomenon:
“When polled, most Americans had a negative perception of the economy, with some saying that it had even entered a period of recession, while data showed that inflation was going down and GDP growing. This pessimism about the overall economy was found even among Americans who had a mostly positive perception of their own financial situation.”
In short, then, the message was clear.
No matter what the data says, how people feel matters.
Maybe, some would argue, how people feel is all that really matters.
It’s a common refrain among those who pay attention to behavioral economics that buyers make purchasing decisions with emotion and then justify that decision with logic.
Speaking about this emotional-logical relationship, Rory Sutherland, head of advertising agency Ogilvy in the UK, quoted the chief operating officer of Ford Motor Company, Kumar Galhotra, who once said that car-making is “a hundred thousand rational decisions in search of the one emotional decision.”
Say what you like about Phil Mickelson — and many people do say what they like about him — but he does seem to get this.
And that’s why he believes the LIV Golf product, which recently signed its first US television deal with Fox Sports, will win long-term. Because, he says, it’s a much more rewarding on-course experience for the golf fan.
In a short interview with sports business commentator Joe Pompliano on The Joe Pomp Show that went live this week, Mickelson said (emphasis mine):
There's a lot of reasons why I believe LIV is going to be successful, but the number one reason would be something you wouldn't think. And that is this — it's how you feel.
This is where I'm going with this. When you can identify how if something is right for you or not based on how you feel. Am I anxious? Am I dreading something coming up or am I looking forward to it and excited?
When you go to PGA Tour event, it's very uncomfortable for a parent to bring a child because you have to be quiet. Don't move, stop moving, come over here, come over here, let's go get a view. And you're kind of hustling and your kids are tired.
They're walking miles, right? That's the viewer. The golf fan is the most loyal fan — paying for a ticket, walking miles and seeing a fraction of the action. It's not like other sports where you buy a seat and you get to see 100% of the action and you don't have to move. So we have a very loyal fan base, but when you're with your kids, it's very uncomfortable at a tour event … It's almost not even worth it.
You go to a LIV event, you feel different and here's why. You have music going. So if you're out on the course, we don't hear little people saying stuff. We don't hear it. So you're not as anxious about having your your kids be quiet.
There's a fan zone on the course where you can sit down, take a break, grab some drinks. It's like a little hang. You can take a nap. They have a kid zone by the clubhouse where again, you can take a nap, you can sit down, play putt putt and play games for them, entertain them with a big screen so you can still see what's going on in the golf.
So when you go there, you feel calm, you feel comfortable, like ‘OK, our kids had a great time, I was relaxed, I wasn't so worried.’ I think that's the number one reason why LIV is going to be successful, because when you go experience it, you walk away feeling different. You walk away feeling like, ‘I really enjoyed that, let's go back to that’.
When you go to a Tour event, [you think] you're going to be like, ‘OK, that was great’. But it doesn't, you're tired, you're worn out. Not many people will articulate it, but they'll feel that.”
Earlier in the same interview, Mickelson put forward the suggestion that the television viewership for LIV Golf is “half” that of the PGA Tour. Data from a 2016 survey found that armchair golf viewers were the oldest of all major sports leagues.
It could take a decade or more for LIV to make a lasting dent in the armchair experience — deals like the initial one with Fox will help, but it will take more than just that, and more time, for that to really play out.
However, word of mouth still spreads quickly, and if the on-the-venue fan experience at LIV events achieves what it’s setting out to — a great on-course experience for fans, and especially younger fans with young families of their own — that word of mouth will travel fast.
And it will especially travel in those parts of the world which have become economically so wealthy in recent decades — including Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea — and where top-class golf has been in short or non-existent supply before the arrival of LIV.
That might not be enough on its own to see LIV Golf win the battle for general public approval, but there’s no doubt that in a competitive sports landscape where fan experience is an increasingly essential element, any complacency about that from other professional tours could be heavily punished.
Thanks for reading.
Till next time.
Shane