Detroit is about to lose more than a golf tournament. The Rocket Classic has fed local hotels, restaurants, and charities since it showed up in 2019, and now that money’s drying up. This year’s tournament, July 30 to August 2 at Detroit Golf Club, is the last one. Rocket Companies has sponsored the PGA Tour for 13 years, eight of them in Detroit, and it’s not renewing for 2027. Losing the Rocket Classic won’t just sting fans emotionally; it will hit Detroit’s economy too.

Rocket founder Dan Gilbert’s company spent a lot of money on the PGA Tour. According to The Detroit News, Rocket Companies invested more than $150 million in sponsoring it over the years. Out of that, more than $100 million was spent as the title sponsor of the Rocket Classic in Detroit. And it did wonders for the local community. The Rocket Classic raised more than $10 million for local organizations during its run in Detroit.

On July 28, 2026, the Tour confirmed that Sompo is taking over Rocket’s 2027 slot with a new tournament at Silverado Resort’s North Course in Napa, California, from July 29 to August 1. This means Detroit is out for at least a season. The earliest real shot at a comeback is 2028, when the Tour’s new two-tier Championship Series and Challenger Series format kicks in.

Where a Detroit event would fit in that new system is still unclear. Detroit is one of the top 15 media markets in the United States, though, which could improve its chances of keeping a PGA Tour tournament in the future.

Is Detroit ready for the change?

First, its economy is going to take a major hit. The Rocket Classic brings thousands of visitors to Detroit over four days, including golf fans, players, caddies, officials, media members, sponsors, and corporate guests.

Hotels get more bookings as visitors stay in Detroit for several days. “Local businesses see the same bump, plus whatever corporate hospitality throws in on top. And that $10 million figure? It’s spread across eight years, not per year, and it doesn’t even touch the tournament’s wider economic ripple, which never shows up in the official numbers.

This brings in a major boost to the local businesses and vendors, but now that the tournament is bidding goodbye, things might go south for them. Now, for the time being, the Rocket Community Fund came up with a solution. It has announced a $4.5 million gift that will continue helping Detroit families and young people even after the tournament ends.

Out of that money, $3.5 million will be used to bring affordable high-speed internet to more people. The project, a partnership between DigitalC and the Detroit Housing Commission, will bring reliable internet to as many as 2,400 homes and about 6,000 residents in Detroit.

How much does the Rocket Classic actually generate for local businesses?

But what happens next? The tournament has put nearly $6 million into its Changing the Course program since 2019, working to close Detroit’s digital divide by improving internet access for local communities.

The tournament also created many business opportunities each year. It introduced new attractions like the Heritage Club hospitality area, expanded corporate entertainment, Monday and Wednesday Pro-Am events, and premium food and drink experiences. These activities attracted more visitors, sponsors, and business guests, which helped hotels, restaurants, bars, transportation services, parking businesses, and local vendors earn more money during tournament week.

The end of the Rocket Classic could mean Detroit loses a lot of money. A good example is the WM Phoenix Open. A 2022 study found that the tournament brings about $453.7 million into Arizona’s economy every year and supports around 4,290 jobs.

It has also raised more than $226 million for charity over its history. The benefits go far beyond the golf course. In 2018, the WM Phoenix Open attracted a record 719,179 fans. Now, you can understand the kind of impact a PGA Tour tournament has on a city’s economy. And Detroit might lose it all.

The numbers show that the Rocket Classic has helped Detroit in many ways. In 2024 alone, the tournament raised nearly $1.5 million for local charities. That initiative has helped give out more than 75,000 devices and connected over 150,000 families to low-cost internet.

The tournament supported many other local organizations. It donated $30,000 each to the Midnight Golf Program and the Detroit Police Athletic League, $10,000 to First Tee, Greater Detroit, $75,000 to the Greater Palmer Park Community, and $764,999 for other charity programs and donations through the Golf & Give program.

So, if the Rocket Classic goes, every source of income associated with it will go with it. But does the reason behind it actually make sense?

The strange economics of losing a growing event

Mark Hollis, the tournament director, claimed this year’s event had the biggest crowd since 2019, without official attendance numbers to back it up. Fading fan interest is not the reason for Rocket’s walking away.

Reports point to money being the trigger. Rocket didn’t want to pay the $20 million price for the Championship Series in 2028. The tournament lost money for the first time in 2025, star players kept skipping it, and CBS also pulled back its TV coverage.

Rocket’s newer leadership, without the same personal stake in the “Detroit feel-good” story that started the sponsorship, weighed the higher price against a housing market, and therefore a mortgage business, that was struggling. The choice was to pay double for the top tier or drop to the Challenger Series. Rocket did neither and left.

Farmers Insurance also dropped its San Diego sponsorship for 2027 but found a replacement almost immediately, Sentry Insurance. Detroit hasn’t found one yet.

Detroit hadn’t hosted a PGA Tour event before this one, and the tournament went back to 2019. Rocket’s sponsorship actually started five years earlier, in 2014, when its predecessor backed the Quicken Loans National outside Washington, D.C., before the whole thing moved to Detroit. That history is part of why this exit stings.

What happens to Detroit businesses in 2027?

Local businesses could see two very different outcomes.

No replacement tournament

Detroit’s 2027 slot goes to a Sompo-sponsored tournament in Napa instead. That’s a season’s worth of spending local businesses simply won’t see.

A new Detroit sponsor for 2028

A new sponsor for Detroit’s 2028 Championship Series would bring most of that spending back, even without the Rocket Classic name attached. But nobody’s stepped up yet, and whoever eventually does will have to match the price tag that pushed Rocket out in the first place.

The loss isn’t confined to the golf course either. Food, hotels, bars, rides into town, maybe an extra night to walk the Riverwalk or swing by the Motown Museum, it all adds up for a city that’s leaning heavily on this one event. What happens next is anyone’s guess, but the Tour hasn’t ruled out a 2028 return if Detroit can land a new sponsor and venue.