So, how did you afford your 2027 Ryder Cup tickets for Adare Manor? Sold your Masters gnome you say? Nice.
Tickets for next year’s contest will cost a record high for a European venue at €499 for daily admission, almost twice as much as the cost for Rome 2023 but less than the €638 ($750) for Bethpage Black last year. Still, as expected, there has been huge backlash to the surprising hike. Apparently Europeans would never price gouge like our American opponents…
The queue for the Masters merchandise shop at Augusta National was so long that wait times were up to two hours. How much someone is willing to pay was an interesting subplot to the golf a fortnight ago with Masters gnomes the most coveted item and at a relatively modest $60 in store. However, step outside the exit door and you could be offered $200 a pop, even $2,000 in cash was mooted.
These are popular collectable items and are often listed on resale sites like eBay. Some people have the cunning plan to sell the gnome to cover future college tuition costs for their children. Not bad. Perhaps some people lucky enough to have bought one either this year or in the past will be willing to part with their 13 inches in a swap deal for a Ryder Cup ticket for next September. The person who was offering $2,000 cash for a gnome in Augusta can afford the weekly Tuesday-Sunday ticket for €1,999.
In Ireland we do love a moan about ticket prices for sporting events. The IRFU are no strangers to charging over €100 to watch our “gladiators” play a meaningless friendly, sorry, test match. The actual hardcore rugby fan will of course succumb and pay but his view of the action on the pitch will be limited by the corporate, scarf wearing, barbecue hosting, day out merchants who are out of their seat more times than a child in junior infants looking to hit the concourse bar.
Sport is a great excuse to part with large sums of money, because of what experience is on offer. But €499 for a Ryder Cup ticket just doesn’t cut it – and that’s not just because it is an outdoor sporting event in a country where it will most likely piss down on your overpriced beer.
Global demand is expected to be high and it is estimated that 250,000 fans will come through the gates of Adare Manor between practice and tournament days. Irish sports fans will get an exclusive priority window to register and access tickets when the portal opens on Friday, April 24th before a global ballot opens on June 3rd.
It is common knowledge that golf isn’t a spectator sport. It is more suited to being an armchair fan. The Ryder Cup is the epitome of a television spectacle. Very little golf is played at a Ryder Cup. There are four matches in each session while at its busiest there will be just 24 players on course during the Sunday singles. Too many people watching and not enough playing. For much less than the €499 asking price you can go to top class golf events, get up close and personal to the players and see a bucket load of the action. Are we allowed to mention that the same team wins the Ryder Cup every time?
The quickest way to negate that home advantage is to price out the actual golf fan and market yourselves to the richest golf “fans” who will have an absolute ball in the hospitality tents. It is a real f-off to the real golf fans but this is the way the world works now and sporting events are number one in how to exploit people and price out a certain demographic. Let’s not mention the world cup, even your Masters gnome might not cover those costs.
The normal working people, the ones who actually want to go to sporting events, are being priced out of the biggest shows in town. Yet they will still go. The 2027 Ryder Cup will sell out in double quick time and the backlash will pass as quickly as a sun shower. Sports fans are great at complaining but they are equally as good at paying and tournament organisers know that.
I’ve covered one Ryder Cup – Rome 2023 – and I’ve seen enough. Yeah, it’s a bucket list experience but like most A-list sporting events you will need buckets of cash to attend.
Get selling those gnomes.
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