Executives at PGA Tour say they are getting ready for a new era in sports when leagues will need to exercise significantly more control over the content that’s made from the games, matches and tournaments that every media outlet wants to show.
The backer of golf’s most popular events on Wednesday unveiled a new 165,000 square foot production facility, PGA Tour Studios, on its campus in Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida, part of a bid to gain new oversight over thousands of hours of sports content that its top executives believe will only be in more demand in a future dominated by streaming video — and different kinds of media entities that are looking at sports in very different fashion. The new facility is the first new production entity built by PGA Tour since 1997.
“The traditional model was we would do a licensing deal. We would license our rights to a domestic partner like NBC and CBS. They did all the sports production. What we did is we put on the event, but they went out and they did all in the production,” says Louis Goicouria, PGA Tour’s senior vice president of media, during an interview, adding: “When we go into 2030 and we’re talking to companies like Amazon or Netflix or Apple that do not traditionally produce sports, much less golf, for us to be able to give them a turnkey product is very powerful.”
Executives declined to discuss the investment required to launch the new production facility. A study by market research firm RKG estimates the new structure will have an economic impact of $112 million in northern Florida.
PGA Tour is taking a new swing in an increasingly complex era for sports and the leagues that organize them — despite their growing fortunes as the backers of one of the few entertainment formats that still command the broad, simultaneous audiences that advertisers and distributors still crave. Yes, the sports rights they control are worth billions. And yet, some of the new giants eager to strike deals don’t operate in the same way as their traditional partners, which for PGA Tour includes Paramount Global, NBCUniversal and Disney.
Most of the streaming upstarts that have entered the entertainment sector do not field their own production teams for sports. Netflix, for example, relied on CBS Sports to produce its recent Christmas NFL games. Amazon enlisted NBC Sports to get “Thursday Night Football” broadcasts off the ground. Apple worked with Major League Baseball itself to produce its Friday-night coverage of baseball games. Amazon and Netflix have used top-flight talent to deliver play by play, but typically not on an exclusive basis. Netflix, for example, tapped ESPN’s Mina Kimes, for its NFL coverage, while Amazon has relied on Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit for “TNF” — even though they continue to work, respectively, for NBC and ESPN.
At the same time, there is heavier demand for more than just the basic game. Fans crave digital clips. Amazon Prime Video and Netflix have shown new interest in immersive, behind-the-scenes documentaries that give viewers unique access to an individual team or single player’s experience across an entire season. More leagues are interested in reaching fans outside the U.S., with a focus on players who have come to America to compete.
Such a dynamic has sports leagues thinking more broadly about what they oversee. “PGA Tour Studios will play a vital role in our commitment to put fans at the center of everything we do, from offering them extensive access to PGA Tour stars — inside and outside the ropes — to dynamic entertainment projects that reach beyond traditional audiences,” says Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour Commissioner. He says the new facility will leave PGA Tour “better suited than ever to bring incredible stories of our generational athletes to life, for a growing, engaged fan base, no matter where they are.”
More leagues have worked in recent years to exert a firmer grasp on their output. NASCAR last February struck a pact with CAA that called for the development of new relationships in film, television, music, and podcasts. Meanwhile, Major League Baseball has been showing more interest in taking over local rights for several of its teams, particularly as regional sports networks on cable have begun to flounder, hard-pressed to keep up demand for high fees from distributors as fans are able to find games in an array of new venues.
After PGA Tour struck a media-rights deal in 2012, says Rick Anderson, PGA Tour’s chief commercial officer, executives realized they had to up their game. “It made a lot of sense to try to build a facility that was state of the art and that would put us in a position to be able to deliver live and original content 100%,” he says. “So, if we got to a point at some point in the future where the business model was all direct to consumer, for example, it could be done from this facility with a need to rely on no one else to do it.”
PGA Tour’s new studio facility will feature eight production rooms, eight audio control rooms and seven LED-outfitted studios., which can monitor and display thousands of video and audio feeds, and capture action from up to 144 cameras or live feeds
Content demands for leagues have increased — exponentially. PGA Tour is at present producing material for more than 50 different social platforms, including YouTube, says Michael Riceman, PGA Tour’s senior vice president of content and production. And then there are a website, international partners and original programs for CBS and NBC. One program that airs on NBC’s Golf Channel, “The Cut,” will be overhauled in the second quarter and be presented as a studio show, Riceman says.
More lies in the offing. PGA Tour plans to launch a new “World Feed,” a content stream produced and curated exclusively for international media partners and their viewers, with a customized graphics package and specific cameras focused on international golfers. This live broadcast will feature weekly on-site reporters and include up to six dedicated cameras. Following its debut at The Players, the feed will be produced for all remaining events on the 2025 schedule. The PGA Tour views the launch as a first step in producing localized live feeds specific for certain countries in years to come.
Executives recognize that what works today may not have as much value in the future, given the pace of change in technology and entertainment. So the new studio was constructed with the concept that it may have to evolve, says Goicouria. “Are we gonna build a facility that meets our needs for day one?” he asks. “Or are we gonna build a facility that meets those needs, but also has room to grow?”
