The business of hosting a professional tournament is almost always about one thing: The bottom line.
Most people never see the real truth. The lobbying, the courting, the long hours of presentation that goes on behind the scenes and then ultimately, the moment of truth. Will a sponsor engage? Do they see the benefit and can they leverage their association for the betterment of their business?
This task is the job lot of the commercial departments of all the world’s professional golf tours, and all of professional sport. Never easy, usually unheralded and – given the amount of rejection in that particular area of the business – it can be a thankless job.
There are no absolutes. There is no such thing as a guarantee, and each sponsorship deal always carries a degree of risk, but the modus operandi is almost always along the lines of the old maxim, “You have to speculate, to accumulate.”
In the case of last month’s Irish Open, the arrival of a title sponsor was big news. Ireland, where I live and was brought up, has been in the throes of a recession that has never been seen before.
Like many countries affected by the economic downturn, Ireland’s status as a fun-loving and interesting place to do business has been pushed to the limit. Since the worldwide recession in late 2008, most business has constricted, so too golf club memberships.
A tightening of the belts has become the norm, and with it, the power of optics. Businesses no longer sponsor in the way of days gone by. All options are examined and stripped down. Can a sponsorship add value to the offering by that company, will it result in greater footfall or its equivalent in business terms? Can a company truly afford the luxury of association with a sportsperson or event?
The arrival of Dubai Duty Free’s sponsorship of the 2015 Irish Open was greeted warmly, and by the looks of it, has been a wonderful success. In the video at the top of this story, the airport retailer’s executive vice-chairman Colm McLoughlin – one of Dubai’s most prominent businessmen – assesses the return on investment, which could lead to a further two years of sponsorship, or not, which is very much within their power.
McLoughlin has transformed Dubai Duty Free, along with his dedicated team, into an annual turnover of just shy of $2 billion. The world’s first duty free shop was established in 1947 at Ireland’s Shannon Airport, and that is where McLoughlin first cut his teeth in the trade. He knows people, and he knows business.
While Dubai has transformed beyond all recognition as a destination over the last 30 years, so too has its airport, its airline and in particular its duty free operation, which McLoughlin, George Horan and a team of dynamic go-getters have stewarded to unprecedented heights.
As the host of CNN’s Living Golf show, I have found myself walking through its halls at all hours of the day and night. It is a 24-hour business of immense proportions. A regular supporter of sports events in Dubai and beyond, this latest foray marked a new departure, all puns intended.
But at the core of DDF’s success has been an instinctive tendency to make good calls at the right time. It’s also a combination of great leadership and smoking out the weak links.
On the classic links of Royal County Down, the perfect storm evolved. This was more than a weather-affected traipse around unforgiving golfing terrain by many of the world’s best. The sun actually shone on this heavenly corner of the island, and its beauty was seen all across the globe.
The combination of a world-class host in Rory McIlroy (a native of County Down and a resident of Dubai), with a world-class venue that tested the very best, and a world-class business that has links to the world, might just have been the most serendipitous of mergers, but its real success will be determined by a clever man from County Galway, who knows a thing or two about the real world and even more about real business.
