TGL’s first season ended earlier this week when the Atlanta franchise won the league’s inaugural championship. The indoor, tech-enabled golf league co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy had its ups and downs in year one, and everyone seems to have a hot take on whether or not this league will be successful long-term.

You guys know where I stand — I am a fan of the league and think TGL is one of the most undervalued properties in sports, even though its parent company has raised hundreds of millions of dollars. But rather than just sharing my opinion, I want to walk you through my thought process, including helpful data points and context.

Let’s start with TV viewership because everyone knows media rights are how sports leagues make the majority of their revenue. TGL’s first regular season averaged 513,000 viewers on ESPN platforms with a total audience of 19.3 million viewers.

That number might seem small to people who are used to reading the NFL’s press releases, but half a million viewers per match in year one is a solid number for TGL.

TGL’s most popular matches averaged around 1 million viewers, while the least-viewed match had 160,000 viewers on ESPN2. There is obviously a pretty wide gap between those numbers, but that’s why providing additional context is so important.

The average viewership number is misleading because 1) TGL’s matches rotated between ESPN and ESPN2, and 2) TGL’s condensed schedule forced some matches to the early afternoon window (3 p.m. ET), including a triple-header on President’s Day.

The delineation between ESPN and ESPN2 might not sound like a big deal, but it can make a sizable difference. ESPN is a far more popular channel, so while 300,000 viewers might not be a home run for them, it is for their sister network, ESPN2.

That’s why the best way to compare viewership metrics is by analyzing what ESPN would have put in TGL’s place if they hadn’t bought the rights. In this case, that’s an easy question to answer because all we have to do is look at last year’s TV schedule.

When you compare TGL matches to what ESPN showed in that same time slot a year prior, TGL’s numbers were 21% higher. TGL also wasn’t competing against pickleball and cornhole; most of these slots were filled with college basketball and NHL games.

ESPN is happy with that outcome, but it gets even better when you consider that it’s been reported that ESPN paid TGL less than $10 million to broadcast season one.

Think of this as a marketing play. In the same way Formula 1 gave ESPN its broadcast rights for free in 2017, TGL’s low annual fee to start reduces the risk for ESPN while also providing TGL the best chance of success through marketing and distribution.

Speaking of Formula 1, I actually think that is an excellent comp for TGL. The global aspect adds a unique element. But if you look solely at the U.S., ESPN pays Formula 1 about $90 million annually to broadcast 24 events that average plus or minus 1 million viewers each race, depending on the time and location of that weekend’s grand prix.

But there is also one huge difference. It’s tough for ESPN to make that money back because they don’t show any commercials during F1 races, instead choosing to have the entire race sponsored by Mercedes with a small logo in the top right-hand corner.

This is a critical difference because while TGL averages fewer viewers than Formula 1, the new league has infinitely more advertising opportunities integrated within it.

TGL also has dozens of international TV deals that will become more valuable over time, and every network will want its younger demographic. This year, the median viewer age for TGL was 51.4. That makes TGL the second-youngest sports league behind the NBA (50) and significantly younger than the PGA Tour’s median age of 63.

We could talk about how TGL secured blue-chip sponsors like SoFi, Genesis, and Best Buy. TGL also performed exceptionally well on social media this year with 123 million impressions across platforms. The players seemed to enjoy it, and the arena was always full of celebrities, including Serena Williams, Eli Manning, and Josh Allen.

We’ll see what happens with a potential deal between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Golf. Although, I don’t expect that to change much. The same people who invested in the PGA Tour through Strategic Sports Group — Arthur Blank, Steve Cohen, John Henry — own TGL teams. They aren’t going to do anything to jeopardize those investments, and the PGA Tour is also incentivized for TGL to become more popular, as they own a decently sized minority stake (18%) in the league.

Over the last several months, you’ve probably heard many big-brain theories about whether TGL is a fantastic or horrible product. I’ll admit there are a few things the league needs to improve, like establishing a more consistent schedule. But at the end of the day, TGL will be successful for a much simpler reason than you might think.

Golf is one of the only sports in the world that has become tremendously more popular at the amateur level without that increase in popularity translating to the professional level. Many people will say that’s because the multi-year fight between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf has harmed the sport, and I agree that it has played a role.

However, the real reason goes much deeper. The reality is that professional golf is not a great TV product, especially in the 21st century. Tiger Woods was able to mask many of these problems because he was unlike anything we had ever seen. But when you boil it down to the basics, the PGA Tour’s television ratings are down for a reason.

Think about it this way: A golf tournament is a four-day commitment for viewers. The most popular golfers don’t play in every tournament. If they do play in a tournament, they may not make the cut. The average round of golf on the PGA Tour takes over four hours, and even if you commit your entire weekend to watching a tournament, the TV broadcast typically only shows about 14 minutes of golf shots each hour. The remaining 75% of the broadcast is filled with commercials, commentary, and visuals.

Every other sports league is changing its rules to shorten games. The data clearly shows that anything under two hours is the sweet spot, but the PGA Tour can only do so much. Golf is an outdoor game that inherently takes a lot of time. Add in the fact that millions of dollars are at risk, and players don’t have any incentive to rush shots.

This is where TGL has an advantage. It’s a different kind of golf, but it’s still golf. Every match is under two hours, and there is a shot clock to speed things along. The betting component can be massive given the format, and the players being mic’d up almost guarantees weekly viral social media clips for the league and its TV partners.

TGL was specifically built for television. It’s not going to replace the PGA Tour, but the PGA Tour took equity in the league because they know what it can be. LIV Golf has already spent over $1 billion on player contracts and tournament expenses, yet TGL averaged ~5x more viewers in year one at a fraction of the up-front investment.

It’ll be fun to see how TGL evolves over time. There is still a lot of work to be done, but starting a new sports league is hard. The good news is that TGL has proven there is demand for its product. Now, they just need to focus on growing the audience.

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