Was TGL's first season a success?
TGL’s first season ended earlier this week when the Atlanta franchise won the league’s inaugural championship. The indoor, tech-enabled golf league co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy had its ups and downs in year one, and everyone seems to have a hot take on whether or not this league will be successful long-term.
You guys know where I stand — I am a fan of the league and think TGL is one of the most undervalued properties in sports, even though its parent company has raised hundreds of millions of dollars. But rather than just sharing my opinion, I want to walk you through my thought process, including helpful data points and context.
Let’s start with TV viewership because everyone knows media rights are how sports leagues make the majority of their revenue. TGL’s first regular season averaged 513,000 viewers on ESPN platforms with a total audience of 19.3 million viewers.
That number might seem small to people who are used to reading the NFL’s press releases, but half a million viewers per match in year one is a solid number for TGL.
TGL’s most popular matches averaged around 1 million viewers, while the least-viewed match had 160,000 viewers on ESPN2. There is obviously a pretty wide gap between those numbers, but that’s why providing additional context is so important.