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I'm just guessing here, but I can see where maybe a sports bar or even perhaps a golf club would purchase the event via PPV for their customers to watch, and maybe then there would be some sort of legality involved... not sure though.
I reached out to our club's GM to consider purchasing the Mayweather fight back last year via PPV, charge a small cover fee and include finger foods and pizza. I just thought it would be a good opportunity to get members up to the club, buying beer and cocktails, etc... just something for the members basically. Not a huge money-maker for the club, but just a courtesy deal for the membership. Unfortunately they had a wedding at the club that same night of the fight and most of the banquet/restaurant staff were scheduled to help manage the wedding reception. It just wasn't practical to do it given the circumstances.
The last PPV I watched was for the Tyson/Holyfield fight back in the 90's, the night when Tyson bit off a chunk of Evander's ear. A good friend informed me about a month out that he was going to order it, that we could all chip in and help pay for the PPV, we ordered pizza and wings, drank a lot of beer that night. It was a good time, but the way things ended with the fight left us feeling like we were gipped. That was a HUGE fight that had been heavily promoted, Tyson was still pretty much in his prime at the time. That was back when Boxing was still fairly popular and you had two great heavyweights going head-to-head.
Golf has never been that popular. I think if you took a poll amongst all avid golf fans here in the US about which major championship they want watch the most, the Masters would win in a landslide. Limited commercials certainly helps. But even at that - very few of those same fans would shell out money to watch it on PPV.
I just think the architects of this Tiger vs Phil match are completely out of touch with reality in thinking that that many people are interested enough to spend money to tune in.