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For the Good of the Game

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That's the ticket

The inaugural Soboba Classic hopes to build relationships with surrounding communities through a new nationwide tour charity model

BY CHRISTI WHITTEMOREPublished: July, 2009

Doug Hoffort is eager to get the ball rolling at the Soboba Classic (PHOTO: Eddie Meeks).
When it comes to promoting a new event, it doesn’t get more “win-win” than the Nationwide Tour’s Tickets Fore Charity model.

Doug Hoffort, tournament director of the Soboba Classic that will be launched this fall at The Country Club at Soboba Springs in San Jacinto, said the program enables local charities to sell weekly ground passes to the event and keep the proceeds for their groups.

Charities will ask supporters to purchase weekly ground passes for $25 or weekly clubhouse passes for $125, with purchasers designating a charity and tickets being issued directly from the Soboba Classic.

“The charities print order forms that ticket purchasers can mail or fax to us, or they direct ticket buyers to [the charity’s] website or to ours,” Hoffort said about the program that has been established at seven of the Nationwide Tour’s 29 events.

Another attraction for charities is that they collect proceeds quickly.

“If they sell tickets in June, they receive the proceeds in July,” Hoffort said.

As of the first week of June, local groups had sold $45,355 in weekly passes for the event to be held Sept. 28-Oct. 4. Hoffort said the tournament’s goal is to sell 30,000 weekly passes through the program, raising $600,000 for nonprofit organizations.

Often, Hoffort said, event organizers take in revenues, pay out expenses and donate any profits to charity. With Tickets Fore Charity, the proceeds go directly to the nonprofit groups, and the approach enables groups to be involved with the tournament and raise awareness in the community. It also frees up marketing and promotion dollars and appeals to prospective sponsors.

Among participating charities are Grandfathers for Golf, The First Tee of Riverside, the Tahquitz High School Golf Program, the SCGA and Southern California PGA foundations, the American Red Cross and Boy Scouts of America.

For more information about the Soboba Classic or Tickets Fore Charity, or to purchase a weekly pass, visit sobobaclassic.net.