Phil Mickelson’s match play victory over Tiger Woods on Black Friday was something of a catastrophe for Turner Sports. The play was criticized on Twitter as everything from “The WWE on a golf course” to “fifteen years too late to be interesting.” Dan Wetzel of Yahoo compared the competition to Caddyshack II.
The financial implications were the most damning of all. A glitch in streaming at BR Live forced Turner to make the event free to everyone that watched it on the app. That led to Turner and TV providers issuing massive refunds to people that already paid to watch the event on pay-per-view. Sports Business Journal estimates the event may end up costing Turner something in the area of $10 million.
That won’t derail the company’s plans though. SBJ’s John Ourand spoke to Turner President David Leavy, who says he envisions The Match: Tiger vs. Phil as the start of a sports franchise for Turner.
“It’s a little early to say what we’re going to do next. Certainly, Tiger and Phil would like to have conversations. So would I,” Leavy said and then hinted other versions of this competition could be on the horizon. “I don’t think you have to keep this just to golf. This is something that could be used for other sports and other competitions. We now have a new model. If you put a compelling event together, people are willing to pay for it.”
The obvious next iteration would be one-on-one basketball. Turner already has the broadcast talent in house to cover the event. The road black would be finding willing participants. In golf, one-on-one competition is the norm. In basketball, losing a one-on-one game against another elite player could cost LeBron James, Kevin Durant, or Russell Westbrook money in their next contract negotiation.
