Scroll to Main content, Navigation
Note:Read why this site appears to be in plain text.
The PGA of America organizes and administers four major championships, including the Ryder Cup Matches, PGA Championship, Senior PGA Championship, and PGA Grand Slam of Golf. These championships are held at different golf facilities each year, which means a complete wireless infrastructure must be customized for the individual golf facility at which each event is held. The design, build-out, maintenance, and tear-down of the host-site infrastructure includes corporate hospitality, media centers, and television compounds. As "The Official Telecommunications Provider to The PGA of America," Sprint has identified ways to streamline the telecommunications needs of the championships and implement solutions that translate into lower investments by The PGA in terms of capital equipment, time, and manpower.
Media Center—Each championship brings together hundreds of broadcast, print, Internet, radio, and other media professionals to report on the event. These professionals require a timely and accurate flow of information to guarantee the championship receives up-to-the minute coverage to fans both on-site and around the world.
Patron Connectivity—Many of the event guests are VIPs who have purchased a level of corporate hospitality to entertain their customers and prospects. Most are high-level executives who need to stay connected to their businesses in real-time while hosting their guests championship week. Infrastructure via Sprint Business Centers is provided to meet the connectivity needs of this important group of people.
Tournament Coordination—Each PGA championship is coordinated by PGA of America employees and thousands of event volunteers to ensure the players and spectators have a flawless "PGA Experience." All of these people need to stay connected throughout the event to ensure the seamless flow of traffic around the golf course and guarantee the integrity of the operations. The volume of spectators, usually 35,000 - 40,000 per day, warrants a significant security presence—also with needs related to information exchange and real-time connectivity.
Sprint works closely with Safari Telecom (a Sprint Partner) to develop solutions that meet the needs of all the aforementioned groups. Their technologically advanced wireless/Wi-Fi and broadband solutions have had an immediate impact on the cost, build-out, and timing of managing The PGA's championships.
In the past, media center informational needs were addressed by running copper wires to the event, and dial-up modems were used to transfer data and video to the various media outlets. Transfer of pictures/video could take up to 2 hours—meaning a lag between the transmissions of vital information/data and when it could be provided to the public.
Sprint implemented a new broadband solution by running fiber optic cable to the event and providing T1 access capabilities to the media professionals. This allows for the transfer of high-speed data from the event. What used to take hours to transmit now takes minutes.
In addition, this access provides the connectivity corporate patrons need to stay in touch with their businesses. Wi-Fi Access and high-speed web browsing capabilities are now available to event VIPs.
Media professionals, patrons, and fans, only had access to landline telephones in the past. This meant coordinating with a local phone company and running up to 600 landlines to the site, which was time consuming and disruptive to the host site's membership and aesthetics.
Fixed Wireless Phones from Sprint are a direct link to the Sprint Nationwide PCS Network. This means less complexity in set-up by cutting out the middleman. The network is far easier to install, in that the phones run off a 10-watt electrical jack and connect to the network wirelessly. What used to take up to three months to install now can be done in two days, at about one-quarter the cost, and is significantly less disruptive to the host site's membership activities.
Today's increased focus on security at all public events has required more flexible, dependable technologies. Sprint answered the call by providing Wi-Fi services to PGA's security service provider that can manage the video transmission of images captured at entrances. Set-up is far less complex now due to the ability of Sprint to link multiple locations to their network wirelessly.
Overall, the customized solutions Sprint provided to The PGA have decreased the set-up time and manpower costs by one-third. Five years ago, setting up a telecommunications infrastructure that met the needs of all event constituencies took months—with Sprint broadband, Wi-Fi and wireless solutions, it now takes days. The work used to require up to 10 people—with Sprint technologies it takes two.
What does this mean to The PGA? It means less capital investment, less coordination time, and less complexity. Ultimately, PGA event organizers can concentrate their efforts on delivering a seamless event and a true "PGA Experience" to the media, corporate patrons, and fans.
When you choose Sprint, you're in good company. In fact, 95% of the FORTUNE 1000® rely on Sprint for combinations of data, Internet, voice or wireless solutions as do more than 26 million customers of all sizes in 100 countries around the globe. The reasons are clear and compelling:
FORTUNE 1000® is a registered trademark of FORTUNE magazine, a division of Time Inc.
Regulatory, Tariffs, Rates and Terms