Scott Radley: Hamilton aces its Canadian Open

There aren't many times in golf you're going to be eager to publicly announce you finished way above par. Wednesday at city council was the exception.

Listening to RBC Canadian Open tournament director Bryan Crawford explain that the 2019 event at the Hamilton Golf and Country Club had created $63 million in local economic impact and $82 million overall while being named runnerup as PGA tournament of the year was a jolt of good news at a time we could use some.

The impact of this event is tremendous," he says.

Crawford was supposed to present these numbers to council around this time last year but his appearance was delayed until March. Then the pandemic arrived and it got pushed back again until this week.

But what that delay did was move it a little closer to the time he'll be asking the city for financial and service contributions for the tournament's return in 2023. Which brings us to those numbers he mentioned. And the reasons he'll certainly get support.

Not only did the tournament attract 120,000 people to the famed Ancaster course - split nearly 50-50 between men and women - but it brought huge exposure to the city, leading to that giant economic impact.

Granted, these dollar figures are not exact. They're based on models involving data, statistics, historic precedents and other factors that makes those final totals educated estimates.

For example, it's impossible for organizers to know exactly how much gas was purchased by people to drive to the course, how much was spent on plane tickets to get here, what was spent on car rentals, food outside the course and innumerable other expenses. But, we know money poured in because 61 per cent of those who attended were from out of town. They came from 10 provinces and 33 U.S. states. They had to be spending money somewhere.

On top of that, nearly 20 million people watched the tournament on TV and saw beautiful shots of the Hamilton Golf and Country Club again and again and again, the heavy majority of those being south of the border on Golf Channel and CBS. That promotion surely has significant value.

There are hard numbers in there too, though. Crawford says seven Hamilton hotels brought in a total of $543,000 during the week, a number of restaurants that set up temporary stands on site sold 36,000 meals, and $2 million went toward local charities and community groups.

That's real dollars going into the community," he says.

Oh, and more than 70,000 cans of Steam Whistle beer were sold.

They had basically run out of product," Crawford says. Everywhere else in the province had to be diverted to the Canadian Open."

Even with this festival-like atmosphere, there were no arrests at or after the two concerts - more than 18,000 people were on site one night to see Florida-Georgia Line - there was no property damage (save for having to re-sod the grass under the stage which was expected) and Ancaster Coun. Lloyd Ferguson says he received no noise complaints.

This is all relevant because Crawford will eventually be back in front of council asking for its participation again prior to the tournament's return in three years. When things in the world will hopefully be fully back to normal.

It'll be real hard to argue (for) any future council not participating and making this happen as much as possible," Coun. Jason Farr says.

Especially when those numbers Crawford cites places the Open slightly below hosting a Grey Cup which is estimated to infuse between $80 million and $100 million into the local economy but above the Juno Awards which reportedly bring roughly $11 million. Making it one of the bigger events the city ever holds.

One it will potentially be able to hold again and again.

Since the Hamilton Golf and Country Club is a favourite of players, fans and Golf Canada - and because of the city's central location - you can expect to see the event played here with some regularity.

We cannot wait to come back in 2023," Golf Canada CEO Laurence Applebaum told council. And in the future as we have a shorter and smaller rotation of the best clubs in Canada hosting this event."

You want some good news? There you go.

Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com