The event

Golf, over 700 million impact for the Ryder Cup until 2027

From 27 to 30 June, the Adriatic Golf Club in Cervia will play the 81st edition of the Italian Open on the DP World Tour calendar.

23 June 2024

Ryder Cup, non solo Golf ma anche promozione del territorio grazie alla DMO

4' min read

The 81st edition of the Italian Golf Open will be played from 27 to 30 June 2024 at the Adriatic Golf Club in Cervia. A month away from the start of the Paris Olympics, 156 competitors will compete along the 18 holes of the course that skirts the ancient pine forest of Milano Marittima, in the hunt for the title and a total prize money of $3.2 million.

Double Italian Open

The Italian Open thus returns to Emilia Romagna 31 years after the first edition was held in Modena in 1993. The competition, which has the support of the official advisor, Infront Italy, is included in the calendar of the DP World Tour, the top men's continental circuit (and the same will be true for the 2025 edition that will be held in Tuscany, at the Argentario Golf Club). Meanwhile, from 14 to 16 June, at the Nazionale di Sutri, in the province of Viterbo, a tournament on the calendar of the Ladies European Tour, the maximum European women's circuit, was played. The one played at the Nazionale was the 27th edition of the women's Italian Open and was held in Lazio 17 years after the last time, in the wake of the Ryder Cup at the Marco Simone in Rome in September 2023.

The impact of the Ryder Cup

An event whose medium to long term positive impact Federgolf president Franco Chimenti has continued to talk about in recent months. "With the Ryder Cup," he recalled, "271,191 spectators from 85 different countries have arrived in Rome, generating an economic spin-off that in a multi-year project, once concluded in 2027, will be higher than expected. Although all the proceeds of the event ended up, as per contract, to the organising body, Ryder Cup Europe, also thanks to the Ryder, 2023 was a boom year for tourism in the capital".

To support this, Chimenti listed a series of data, including: the more than 620 million television viewers in more than 190 countries, the 100,000 passages in three days on the Metro B, tickets sold out, green fees doubled all over Italy, the 70,000 hotel room bookings in Rome alone, equal to around 20% of the capital's room occupancy, for a total valuation of 250 million euro.

Moreover, according to data received from the Ente Bilaterale Turismo del Lazio, in the September-October 2023 period, there were 3.3 million arrivals (1.2 million Italians, and over two million foreigners) with a 25% increase over the same period in 2022. Moreover, according to data from the Fipe Confcommercio Roma, the total turnover of public establishments reached 215 million, including receipts from bars, restaurants, and fashionable shops for shopping, with a per capita expenditure for food of 150 euros per day and another 200 euros in extra expenses.

The overall turnover of the event was around 700 million euro. "With the Ryder Cup," Chimenti also recalled, "and thanks to the support of the government, the Lazio Region, the Municipality of Rome, and Astral, we have left an infrastructural legacy that has changed the face of Rome in the north-east quadrant, resurfacing roads and unblocking the Tiburtina.

With this in mind, an agreement was signed on 28 May between Fig and Anci, the association of municipalities, to launch initiatives to enhance golf tourism, municipalities and clubs throughout the country.

The financial requirements

Chimenti also explained that the Federation's financial requirements in 2023 amounted to 13 million euros, 6.9 million of which were covered through debt with the Istituto per il Credito Sportivo and 5.5 million through non-reimbursable contributions from the ministries most interested in the event. In the end, spending on the event was less than the bid budget: 138 million against the 159 million initially planned. But Chimenti guaranteed that by 2027 the accounts for the Ryder Cup project would be consistent with the approved budget plans, thus guaranteeing that the costs would be covered.

Kpmg, in fact, in 2016 estimated the direct and indirect impacts resulting from the organisation of the challenge between Europe and the United States, the most important team golf event, and especially of the related events to be realised in the period 2016-2027, at over EUR 500 million (to be exact, EUR 277.4 million as regards direct impacts and about EUR 236 million as regards indirect impacts).

After all, the 2023 Ryder Cup project was born with a view to sustainability, with a total cost of around 160 million to be spread over a 12-year period, from 2016 to 2027, linked to 37 major events spread across the country (which suffered a major slowdown between 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic). Against a government loan of 60 million (plus 97 million surety that was eventually not called), the business plan foresaw a fiscal return for the state of 109 million. The agreement with the advisor Infront, for the concession of marketing and television rights, is worth 41 million, while another 56 million will come from the increase in the number of members, from further revenues from sponsors, suppliers and television rights.