"Players competing for 55% of consolidated revenue from roughly $1.5 billion"

Phil Mickelson’s claim of only 26% of revenues going back to PGA Tour players appears to have earned him a rebuttal from the Global Home, albeit a slow one given that he mentioned it in a September 14th podcast with Gary Williams.

This comes from a Doug Ferguson column advocating against paying players salaries instead of through purses, Ferguson writes of where the PGA Tour is finding money for PIP and Play 15-Get-50K guarantees:

At least two players have coined a similar phrase of $50 million “magically appearing” to pay for the Player Impact Program and another program called “Play 15” that doles out $50,000 to anyone playing 15 tournaments.

The tour would suggest nothing magical about it. In a presentation to the Player Advisory Council, it showed players competing for 55% of consolidated revenue from roughly $1.5 billion, courtesy of a nine-year media rights deal worth about $7 billion. It also includes $32 million from the reserve fund to help pay for the earnings increase.

Obviously “consolidated revenue” is a different way of interpreting the Tour’s revenues and most of us probably don’t really care. But the disparity in Mickelson’s understanding versus the Global Home’s number is worth keeping an eye on as the situation unravels.

Also, it’s a bit surprising to see the television rights valued at $7 billion over nine years, putting the network/cable rights at just under $800 million a year.