Is the Masters leaving money on the table? A Forbes report says the tournament could be making so much more

The Masters Tournament is the most prestigious men’s professional golf event and it seems like it gets bigger every year.

The prize money definitely got bigger in 2022, as the purse ballooned to $11,500,000, with $2,700,000 going to the winner, Scottie Scheffler. That’s up from the $2,070,000 earned by Hideki Matsuyama in 2021.

Prize money aside, there’s a lot of green at the Masters (pun intended) but according to a report by Forbes, the folks at Augusta National Golf Club could be making so much more.

We all know that the club plays a lot of things close to the vest. Very little gets out in terms of how it goes about its business. It’s a private club and the membership likes it that way. And that’s all good.

But in the article on Forbes, reporter Justin Teitelbaum extrapolates some interesting numbers. He writes that the 2022 tournament generated, by his estimates, $142 million. Meanwhile, the 2022 U.S. Open run by the U.S. Golf Association, will bring in $160 million.

Teitelbaum’s breakdown of the Masters goes like this:

• Merchandise, $69 million
• Badges, $39 million
• International TV broadcast rights, $25 million
• Concessions, $8 million

Notice anything missing? North American TV rights. That figure is $0. The U.S. Open will collect $93 million from its domestic TV rights.

It’s perhaps the most interesting money angle to the entire tournament, as Teitelbaum writes:

Augusta has just six sponsors—AT&T, Delta, IBM, Mercedes Benz, Rolex and UPS—which split a minimalistic four minutes of commercial time per hour of event coverage. Most of the sponsorship money goes directly to Augusta’s media partners, CBS and ESPN, to cover the cost of production, with the rest going to pay to host hospitality events for VIP patrons. Given that the U.S. Open generates at least $15 million per year in sponsorship revenue, it is safe to assume that the Masters could pull in at least $20 million, thanks to its much higher TV viewership. The Masters generates no domestic TV revenue because its agreements with CBS and ESPN allow Augusta complete control of the broadcast in exchange for no compensation.

On-course advertisements from those six sponsors aren’t even minimalistic; they’re non-existent. There are no ads anywhere on the property. That’s one of the charms of the event.

According to Teitelbaum, Lee Berke, from the consulting firm LHB Sports, Entertainment and Media, says domestic TV rights would be worth more than $100 million.

Admission to the Masters is also the best bargain in sports. That is, if you can get your hands on the face-value prices, which most people can’t. Nonetheless, says the Forbes report:

Being conservative, if Augusta were to charge half of what the secondary-market prices are, its badge revenue would jump to $185 million.

Bottom line, the Masters could be bringing in $269 million more than it does.