Post by mrohde4 on Oct 11, 2016 15:40:44 GMT -5
I used to play in a Madden football league a couple years ago that sold advertising space on the site for TV brands and other things and in return they received TVs, video games, etc to give to the winners of leagues.
I'm all for this, but legal considerations must be considered before real value is added into these tournaments. I know our more-than-capable administrators have considered legal issues when strategizing the direction of this site, but my research tells me that multiple cans of worms get opened when real-life value is added to an online gaming site.
For example, many of the tournaments use RCR, and much of the draw is the chance at playing competitive rounds at these iconic courses. (Especially at, ahem, that southern tournament played every April). If we start attracting players/site traffic by offering items of value (i.e. clubs, prizes, money), this will get the attention of these courses. In turn, these prestigious courses will eventually want something in return for TGCT using their courses. Make no mistake, using iconic courses in video games is not cheap, and many courses are very protective of their proprietary images. (ANGC loooooves litigation).
The HB guys can offer a better explanation, but I suspect that HB has skirted legal consequences up to this point because the iconic courses are created by users, thus shielding HB from liability for unauthorized usage. And TGC Tours operates as a non-profit (essentially) so we aren't getting anything of real value ($) by using these world famous courses. If TGC Tours starts selling ad space which is in turn used for prizes, these courses can argue that this site is enriching itself by using the iconic courses without authorization.
I've always been interested in speaking with administrators about this because I'm sure they've considered these issues in the past.