Woody Paige of the Denver Post reports that such a serious rift has developed between the tour and the rightsholders of the prestigious and unique “International” tournament – featuring the Stableford scoring system – that the Denver Tour stop’s future is in serious jeopardy.
Paige writes:
Jack Vickers, founder of The International, and members at Castle Pines Golf Club, it has been learned, are frustrated and agitated by the PGA Tour’s new direction and demands, and they might not take it anymore….Tournaments in Houston, Charlotte, Fort Worth, New Orleans, Denver and Honolulu, among others, are being treated as minor-league players. Put up more cash; put on your tournament against the beginning of football season and the end of baseball season, or put yourself at the back of the line and play in Division I-AA instead of I-A. At the first tournament of the year the PGA Tour introduced the novel (or novelty) FedExCup, a NASCAR-like or fantasy football-like points competition that will lead to determining a $10 million champion in mid-September.
As a result, the tournament may end after this year. Paige continued:
This whole idea is based on sinking TV ratings and corporate backing caused, in part, by Woods’, and to some extent, Phil Mickelson’s, decision to limit their tournament appearances each year. The PGA Tour has a two-tier system – the Tiger Tournaments and the non-Tiger Tournaments. Guess which tournaments draw the best TV ratings. And few pay attention to golf once football begins. So, instead of pushing and promoting their younger pros, the PGA Tour devised the FedExCup. It’s a mucked-up Cup and an attempt to force Woods and Mickelson to play in three “playoff” tournaments and, if they survive, the Tour Championship….The ABC, ESPN and USA networks loved the FedExCup idea so little they dumped golf. (ESPN would rather show me being stupid on a daily afternoon program, which should tell you something about the golf ratings.) The Golf Channel, which is not available to a vast majority of American viewers, will now televise the bulk of Thursday-Friday rounds.
Good luck with the ratings and the corporate sponsorship and the TV advertising rates and the general interest in the PGA throughout the country. Meanwhile, tournaments such as The International have lost some luster and meaning in recent years – and at times some of their best competitors.
PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem has been criticized for dismissing lightly the loss of old school tournaments such as the Booz Allen (formerly Kemper Open), Washington, DC’s tour stop, and the BC Open as well as younger but well-liked tournaments such as Pittsburgh’s 84 Lumber Classic. Organizers at these now defunct tour stops frequently denounce Finchem’s perceived greed in attempting to prize every last dollar from the highest bidder instead of offering deference to decades long PGA partners in prominent markets.Such simoniacal behavior has led the tour to bed down with a mediocre casino with overpriced, underdesigned courses on Native American land in rural upstate New York. Treating the misfortune of the BC Open, 84 Lumber and Booz Allen with light-fingered contempt, the casino masters of Turning Stone Casino offered 33% more than any other post Fed-ex Cup tour stop to purchase an event. ($6M in prize money, where the next highest purse for the fall series is $4.5M.)
The casino and tribe, the Oneidas, are under fiery public scrutiny for the Oneidas unseemly non-payment of real estate tax flap with the nearby City of Sherrill. In early 2005, The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the tribe’s attempts to claim that repurchase of former reservation property somehow vested the tribe with sovereign authority over the property and allowed them to eschew paying tax on the land.
By good fortune, your author was in the Supreme Court for oral argument on the MGM v. Grokster file sharing case when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg – known as actually one of the more liberal Justices in history – read the decision, in which all Justices concurred except Justice Stevens. In the 8-1 decision, Justice Ginsberg ruled that the Oneidas sought to redress harms stemming from the formation in the Republic two centuries ago. Their requested relief – that purchase of former reservation real estate on the open market made the land sovereign to the tribe and exempt from taxes – would result in a chaotic and ever-changing checkerboard of jurisdiction to, fro and every which way each time land transfered.
Shamelessly spinning that the decision was a “roadmap to our placing the land in a constructive trust” instead of the stern admonition delivered more like a reprimand than an instruction by Justice Ginsberg in her oral reading of the decision, the Oneidas now seek to avoid taxes under a separate avenue, a constructive trust scheme, that has infuriated locals. The tribe asserts on their website that their providing 4,000+ jobs to the region is adequate justification for their goal of non-payment of taxes to the local economy on over 17,000 acres of land. “They think that because they provide jobs, they should get out of paying taxes like everyone else – a rather large tax bill at that” said one local attorney who spoke on condition of anonymity.
City of Utica mayor Joe Griffo formally filed opposition papers on behalf of the county of Oneida.
He wrote:
Oneida County had no choice but to oppose the application because it represented another all-or-nothing filing. Taking 17,000 acres into trust creates a situation that imposes a checkerboard of authority and regulation and is against the best interests of the people of Oneida County, including Nation employees whose homes could be impacted by unrestricted land use activities in the land claim area and whose taxes could be lowered if a fair, final and complete agreement was reached on the status of the Nation’s lands. The Nation’s claim that a checkerboard already exists is a misrepresentation, because although there are many levels of governments, they all abide by the same rules and regulations, particularly in areas that impact the health and safety of others and actions that impact land use and the environment.”
“As I have said before, this is not about closing a casino. I recognize that in the context of issues related to their gaming compact and regulations regarding gambling that there are special concerns for Turning Stone and that it is important to ensure the viability of an enterprise employing thousands of local people. However, the application offered no room for the kinds of negotiation that are vital to arriving at a viable solution. Inquiries for comment from Turning Stone Casino officials are uniformly sent to their brief website page on the issue. The page repeatedly stresses that they employ over 4,600 people, but offers no other justification for their claimed entitlement to escape paying takes. “The PGA Tour has no business supporting a casino” said one prominent sportswriter who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It looks terrible and this seedy tax ditching scheme looks all the worse. The tour ought to know better. What was Finchem thinking?”
“Claims that they’ll have to close the casino are bogus” continued the local attorney. “It’s been open for years despite their having to pay taxes. Now suddenly they can’t run a casino while legitimately paying a tax bill, yet Trump, Wynn and every casino from Vegas to Atlantic City can? What’s wrong with their business sense?”
Nothing, that’s what. Sources say the casino nets astronomical sums of money each year from gaming activities. This is no more than a two-pronged decision tree to the Oneidas – a money grab or a stick up to the locals. Oneida County, stand and deliver.
The PGA Tour, as stewards of the game, have an obligation to take a position on this issue. The integrity of the game demands that professional tournaments be played on worthy venues, venues free from the cloud of gambling and tax disputes.
We will report the response from the PGA for our request for comment as soon as it is received.
My article denouncing the casino’s attempts to compare themselves favorably to many of the game’s hallowed, fabled venues is here. My review of the golf course, TPC Utica Atunyote is here. Note: The price of the course rose to $200 per round, no twilight fees or reduced rates. Further, they still have not revised the laughable policy of not allowing anyone access to the clubhouse – not even to by merchandise in the pro shop – without having previously paid in full for a tee time. “We were turned away at the gate and never even got a glimpse of the clubhouse” bemoaned one pair of local ladies. “I thought this was supposed to be a public golf course!”
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