Finchem On Cume Audiences, Brand Interweaving And Striking Distance Retirement Acceleration

Ah, I remember when the ASAP folks called Tim Finchem's latest b-speak favorite cum audience. But after fifteen internal meetings and one memo I'd sure love to read, the latest buzzword is now cume audience. For the life of me, I don't know why they tweaked it, but boy were those cume audiences the topic of the day at East Lake when the Commissioner sat down with the slingers to talk about the state of the tour.

If you want an overview, Doug Ferguson filed this AP account. If you want the fingers-on-chalkboard version, here goes the ASAP autopsy. Commissioner, the floor is yours...

The next area I'd like to talk about is where we are with television. Television, as is true with any major sport, is an integral part of our value and our business. And I think the biggest takeaway from 2010 is that even though we've continued to suffer through what I read in the Wall Street Journal now is the recession is technically over, but in real terms it's certainly not over.

Wow, the Commish displaying a rare moment of acknowledging real world problems. Don't worry, it didn't last.

Q. You mentioned that you sort of liked the debate about the FedExCup and the points system. But we're at least at year four now where people are either recommending everything from minor tweaks to some major changes. Isn't there some point where you have to say, wait a minute, we need to step back and take a more broad strategic look at this thing? And isn't it a little bit disingenuous to write it off as a rousing success?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Well, we think it's a terrific success because the first year we had 60 percent of fans develop an awareness what we were talking about. We carried out audience into the fall for the first time, had great crowds in Boston, New York and right here. The players have really bought into it. We got tremendous response internationally, so there's no question about the success.

No question? But if another scenario came along and delivered higher ratings, might that be considered a bigger success?

Speaking of that, on the topic of tweaking...the FedExCup points system that is.

We took a year off last year. We said, let's take it easy, we're not going to tweak anymore for a while, but I think it's healthy to have a debate.

Mr. Debatelover himself. Go on...

I think actually, as incensed as all of us college football fans are about the BCS, it's a great thing for the BCS to be arguing about it all the time. Who wouldn't want the argument? There isn't a right or wrong.

Actually, economic studies have suggested a college football playoff would be far more lucrative. But we know it's not all about the money!

It's a matter of degree, it's a matter of individual things happening. You ought to be able to argue that you can fix club marks or if you hit the ball in a divot you ought to be able to drop it. Those are debates that have been going on for years. I remember four different times in an annual player meeting saying when are we going to change the rules saying you can drop the ball in a divot. These are the things that make golf interesting, and the structure of the competition I think is the same thing. So as long as we're moving in the direction we're moving, I'm pleased.

What direction is the FedExCup moving exactly?

Alright, strap yourself in, time for cume audience talk.

Q. You indicated that the cume audience was off 2 percent off of 2009. How does the economy affect the cume audience?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Well, the cume audience affects our ability to sell in a down economy, because if you had a sponsor who's considering three different investments in sports and we can generate that kind of cume audience week out and your branding is woven into the overall telecast which puts you in front of those kind of numbers, it helps you win out over the competition, which is what's happened not just in this downturn but in previous downturns.
If you're a title sponsor, you're much more interested in cume audience than in a rating. If you're buying a couple of spots in the telecast you're more interested in the rating point. But most of our stuff on the title side is based on cume audience. That really helps us.

Value proposition, we hardly knew ya. It's okay though, brand and platform will welcome you with open arms. Wait, there's more.

Q. So just to clarify --

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: I don't think it affects the economy, though.

Q. That was my question. How does the economy affect your cume audience?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: You know, I think it's more a question of alternative programming. This year, for example -- well, it's only 2 percent, but this year the NBC winter Olympics were at an all-time high, Americans won everything, and so those three weekends were tough to compete with. Also, NFL had record ratings until the first quarter, so those things hurt us early in the year. We were down some.

We've come back some. Having the No. 1 player out hurts the cume audience, not just the weeks he plays but just bringing interest to the game. A lot of things contribute to it. I don't know if you can point to one thing. But we've got a great cume audience. If we maintain those numbers, we're in good shape.

And for the lawyerly-fudging-of-the-truth portion of today's event.

Q. For the first time a lot of us can remember, you've actually had a few layoffs here and there in Ponte Vedra, and I've read anecdotal reports about some benefits that may have been trimmed. I wonder if you could speak to that, what prompted it, if it's the current state of affairs --

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: We haven't made layoffs. A layoff is where you have a worker, you lay them off and you bring them back.

Technically, the man is correct!

What we did was we have really tried to reduce the overall size of our cost structure in a variety of different ways over the last three years.

Fascinating how the man can't admit they did, in fact, fire people.

We've had a lot of success. Some of that has included early retirements for some people. That's just the fact of life. Other companies have done it. I think we've tried to do it in a smart way without hurting the muscle and strength of our staff, but we have done some of that. We have accelerated some retirements.

Funny, those people are looking for work. So I guess they really weren't ready to retire, were they?

Q. Do you know definitively how many people are no longer with us?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: I don't know if we've released it, but it's not a huge number. But there are a number of people you're familiar with. Most of them are people that were within striking distance of retirement, probable retirement.

Speaking of "striking distance of retirement," Commissioner, where does that leave you at age 64 next April?