Everybody take a deep breath. It's gonna be OK. Despite Tiger Woods' absence from this weekend's US Open at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, the major PGA tournament will still make money.
Lots of money.
According to Forbes.com 's Sports Money blog, overall revenue from the US Open will decrease between one and three percent due to Woods' absence, which is negligible compared to the 5-10% decrease the tournament could have expected if Tiger skipped the tournament before 2009.
The lack of impact can be attributed to several factors. For starters, general fan interest in Tiger has waned since the superstar stopped winning tournaments and slipped to the number 15 ranking in the world. He also no longer has the same impact on tournament sponsorship now that most corporations wouldn't touch his public image with a ten-foot pole.
Another reason for the lack of impact is the fact that nearly all tournament revenues are made far in advance of the actual event. Forbes.com spells it out pretty well here:
To put a dollar value on these percentages, consider that the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines netted the USGA approximately $50 M in profits on revenues of nearly $100 M ($20M in ticket sales, $15M each for corporate hospitality and merchandise, $5M in food and beverage, and $40M from domestic and international TV revenue). Hence, 90-95% of the revenues were earned well before 2 weeks of the event.