Crawford's Sports Biz and Golf Combo, For April 4th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

Tiger Woods---With the announcement yesterday that Tiger Woods will play in the Masters, it was a big win for everyone, including ESPN. ESPN of course has the rights to televise the first two rounds of the Masters, as well as the annual Par-3 contest on Wednesday.

Even if Tiger Woods shoots 85 on Thursday, the day is expected to be the biggest weekday TV audience for any golf tournament ever and perhaps the biggest audience for any golf even ever period. Woods of course has always moved the needle, the but intrigue as to what will happen is a draw like none other in golf at present.

Masters Tickets--- It has always been one of the toughest tickets to get in all of sports, this year will be no different for people seeking Masters tickets. On the secondary market, tickets for Thursday are going on average of around $1,800.00.

If you want to go to the practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday, you can get in on average on the secondary market for around $520.00. That figure rises on Wednesday to close to $1,100.00

Montreal--- The city of Montreal is making a strong case for baseball to come back to the Canadian city on a permanent basis.

In 2014 for a two game series over 96.000 attended for the Blue Jays/Mets. This year for a two game series which will end today, over 90,000 will attend during the two days to see the Blue Jays/Reds.

It is factual to say Major League Baseball is impressed by those figures for games that actually are meaningless.

NBA Attendance--- It continues to amaze many that Atlanta and Memphis, having wonderful years on the floor, continue to struggle at the gate. Respectively, Memphis and Atlanta rank 17th and 18th in NBA attendance. Memphis (17,309 fans per game, which is 95 percent of capacity) and Atlanta (17,290, which is only 92 percent of capacity.)

The biggest draw on the road in the NBA as might be expected is the Cleveland Cavs at 19,032, followed surprisingly by the Washington Wizards 18,366 and Chicago Bulls at 18,355 per game.

As to who is last in home attendance. The Philadelphia 76ers play before on average 14,049 which is 69.2 percent of capacity.

Final Four---- We do know that sports in general are a boon to any local economy. We should also know there is a cost to hosting major sporting events. The final figures are not in for 2015 in Indianapolis, but in 2014, the cost to taxpayers to host the Final Four in Dallas added up to $10.8 million in local and state tax monies.

Just an example of what some of those costs went for:

Shot Clock Operator----$320.00
Cancellation Insurance---- $29.031.00
Police Overtime---- $76,636.00

Indianapolis Baseball--- Not far from Lucas Oil Stadium site of the Final Four is Victory Field, home of the Triple A Indianapolis Indians, a farm team of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Interesting to note, the Indianapolis Indians have made a profit every year since 1973, showing basketball is not the only sport of interest in Indiana.

Victory Field has 12,200 permanent seats, 2,000 lawn suites and 28 luxury boxes. A family of four can easily attend a game for under $70.00 which includes parking and food.