by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Have you ever seen the Downtown skyline look like that? If so, that’s fine; you probably live here.
However, if you subscribe to Sports Illustrated and live in Montreal or Chicago or Phoenix or Paris, this image may be enough to make you wonder about Jacksonville.
If this shot doesn’t do it, then maybe the entire 64-page section on this week’s Players Championship will be enough to pique your interest and look at Jacksonville and the entire First Coast area as both a golf and vacation destination.
Dick Raskopf, Sports Illustrated Golf Group publisher, said the photo, story and section were sent to the 500,000 people that subscribe to the magazine while another 250,000 were sent to “moderate golfers and golf fans on the Sports Illustrated circulation final.” Some of the true value of such a section is that Sports Illustrated doesn’t do this every week.
“For major tournaments such as The Players Championship, The Masters and U.S. Open, we deliver standalone issues to excite our subscribers about these top events,” said Raskopf.
The five-page story is about the First Coast area being home to the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour and the professional golfers who live in the area. There’s also a section on things to do outside of golf, the best places to eat and coolest places to stay.
So, back to the headline question.
According to Lyndsay Rossman, director of corporate communications for Visit Jacksonville, the story and photos alone are invaluable.
“The pictures and article are priceless to us. It’s great exposure for the city and the region. It’s a gorgeous picture of Downtown,” said Rossman. Then, employing a formula used by the tourism industry to determine the value of articles as opposed to buying ads, she came up with a number.
“The ad value is about $1.3 million,” she said. “The whole piece (section) would have cost about $20 million.”
Rossman compared the section to two recent articles that appeared in two in-flight magazines. Those magazines reached hundreds of thousands of captive readers and covered a variety of local topics. They were not, however, 64 pages long or dedicated primarily to an annual local event that has an economic impact of $150 million and will, tournament officials hope, draw 200,000 over the course of four days of play.
Raskopf said the magazine does not charge for the section, meaning subscribers received it for free. Rossman said, with the exception of one full-page ad bought by Florida’s First Coast of Golf (the cost of which was shared by a few parties) Visit Jacksonville didn’t incur any costs, either.
“It’s great exposure that puts our city in different light,” said Rossman. “When people think of Jacksonville, they think of pro and college football. This puts Jacksonville in a different light to a different audience.”
Jerry Mallot, vice president of Cornerstone — the economic development arm of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce — couldn’t agree more. If it’s Rossman’s job to help draw tourists, it’s Mallot’s job to draw the businesses that draw the tourists. Whether he’s away from Jacksonville courting company presidents and CEOs or hosting them, Mallot understands the power of golf.
“It’s a fantastic spread. It will have a fantastic impact in terms of advancing the image of Jacksonville,” said Mallot. “To an audience, I think, it is right for business and development. In business, there are a lot of sports advocates and golfers. We will try to get our hands on more of them.”
With the inclusion of The Players in the magazine’s Golf Plus section, does that mean the folks at Sports Illustrated think The Players is now the “fifth major” — something that The Players officials talk about with regularity?
“No,” said Raskopf, “but we do believe The Players Championship is one of the premium golf events of the year with arguably the best playing field and one of the more exciting courses on the PGA Tour.”
What else is there?
Sports Illustrated’s Golf Plus section on The Players Championship contains likely the most dramatic shot of Downtown ever published. It’s certainly the most captivating since the 2005 Super Bowl. But, what else is in the section that is of interest to golf fans here as well as across the country and globe?
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