Photo courtesy of TGL Media
The announcement of the forming of WGTL.
REGINA O’BRIEN: Welcome to SoFi Center. My name is Regina O’Brien, and I serve as chief of staff at TMRW Sports. I appreciate you joining us today as we announce the LPGA and TMRW Sports partnership to create WTGL.
MIKE McCARLEY: Thank you and thank you all for being here. I appreciate it.
REGINA O’BRIEN: Today we are joined by Mike McCarley, founder and CEO of TMRW Sports, and LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler. Before we get to questions, Mike and Craig, can you please provide some opening comments on today’s announcement?
MIKE McCARLEY: Yes. When we first envisioned TMRW Sports nearly five years ago, it was really about creating these modern media versions of traditional sports and doing it in a way where we could partner with existing governing bodies and partner with the top athletes from that sport, and I think nothing embodies that more than our relationship that we’ve had in forming TGL with the PGA TOUR, and now what we’re excited to announce today is forming the relationship with the LPGA and creating WTGL.
We always wanted these relationships to be complementary, not competitive. For golf, what does that really mean? A lot of you have seen this play out here at the SoFi Center with TGL over the last year or so. We want to make it simple for casual fans who may not be fans of the game of golf, but they’re sports fans, and it really ultimately helped the game of golf find new fans in a way that you may not find in the traditional game and attract them in a way that they may not be attracted to the traditional game.
We wanted to make it simple. Every shot can be seen live by fans who are sitting here in the arena, and every shot will be seen live by fans who are watching on television all around the world.
This environment is an important component to that. It really is very intentionally built to create a
gladiators-in-the-coliseum type feel. The shot clock creates a bit of a pressure cooker, too, and with every eyeball on you because there’s one shot at a time, you can really feel that pressure, which that comes across to the fans who are here and the fans on the broadcast.
So, in TGL and now in WTGL, it’s very simple. Like most other sports, two teams enter, and two hours later, one team leaves a winner. Again, it’s a modern media version of a centuries-old traditional game. In so many ways what we aim to do is keep one foot rooted in the traditions of the game but the other foot with our partner really trying to help move the game into the future, and that’s why with our partners at the LPGA, we’re so excited to have Craig here today to make this announcement.