Mark and Lynn Cramer have run the Denver Golf Expo for the last 15 years, and never before last weekend had the weather — and what came with it — wreaked such havoc with the show’s attendance.
After being about 350 attendees ahead of last year’s day 1 pace after a very nice February weather day on Friday, the bottom fell out on Saturday and Sunday. With a snowstorm hitting the metro area hard starting on Saturday afternoon, and several local broadcasters advising people not to go out unless they had to, it had an unmistakable effect at the Expo.
Attendance for the three-day show that ended on Sunday at the Denver Mart came in at 7,195, the lowest number for the Expo since 2002. The total was down 24 percent from last year’s 9,486, and it’s more than a third less than the Expo’s record of 11,202, set in 2008.
“I don’t know if it’s so much the weather, or the media hyperbole about the weather,” Mark Cramer said on Monday. “It was a good storm, but it wasn’t the storm of the century and the sky wasn’t falling. They were overly hyper about it. There were news teams yesterday telling people to stay home. It was very disappointing. They don’t realize how badly they hurt small businesses.
“It’s unfortunate that the media does what the media does to make themselves relevant. It’s at no cost to them at all. They’re creating a bigger story.”
The amount of snow from the storm varied widely over the metro area, with some areas receiving 6 inches and others 20.
With about 2,300 fewer people attending the show than last year, it’s no surprise that other numbers associated with the Expo took a hit also:
— The Used Club Sale (pictured at top), which raises money for junior golf development programs through the Colorado Golf Foundation, netted $11,845 over the weekend. While that was solid compared to the 13-year average for the Used Club Sale, it was down about 18 percent from last year.
“The attendance was down and the weather played a major role,” said CGA director of junior competitions Eric Wilkinson, who was overseeing the Used Club Sale. “Both Saturday and Sunday things cleared out earlier than normal.”
Taking the weather into account, the CGA was happy the Used Club Sale raised what it did. The sale has netted almost $60,000 for junior golf over the last four years combined.
“Anytime we can raise that amount for the program, it’s great,” said Wilkinson, who is leaving the CGA this week to become championship assistant for the 2016 Ryder Cup. “The golf community has been generous, as always. This year we had more quantity and not as much quality, but it was still a success for us. It’s still a large number to raise for the Foundation and junior golf. We’d like to thank all the donors.”
— Meanwhile, Colorado PGA professionals provided 483 free 10-minute lessons to Expo attendees. That total was down about 9 percent from 2014.
— Over the three days, 235 kids went through the Junior Golf Central area (left), participating in the Drive Chip & Putt Experience. That was off about 22 percent compared to the number of juniors who took part in the Expo’s Junior Golf Experience in 2014.
The bottom line for the Expo is that no matter how well show organizers and the golf industry — including the CGA, CWGA and Colorado PGA — prepare and plan for the event, the overall success is still somewhat dependent on things that are out of the control of them all.
Things like the weather and related issues.
“I was talking to Lynn this morning and she said we did everything right; we did a very good job,” Mark Cramer said. “We were very well organized and had a lot of participation from the golf industry. But a major winter storm and the media scaring the (heck) out of people doesn’t help. But this is the first time a major storm has hit us like this (during the Expo). We had always been pretty fortunate.”
