⛳️ Masters Missing Out on $269M

If the Masters teaches us anything, it’s that good branding trumps all.

It doesn’t matter that the tournament is named after a slavery euphemism or that Augusta National didn’t have a female member until 2012. You never hear about any of that stuff; we’re too focused on the pageantry and ambiance.

I mean, the tournament is so obsessed with maintaining its brand that Augusta National once banned a CBS broadcaster for complimenting the course too much. More on that later.

In the meantime:

🗞 The Big Story: The Masters is Missing Out on $269M

📉 Biggest Loser: Hitler’s Failed 405,000-Seat Stadium

🏆 Winner’s Circle: Why a Green Jacket?

🗞 The Big Story

The Masters is missing out on $269M per year (on purpose) but this decision actually ends up making it one of the most valuable brands in all of sports.

Masters Revenue: This year, the Masters will generate around $142 million in revenue according to Forbes.

For reference, that’s less than the US Open will make this year ($160M) even though it’s considered to be a less popular golf event… so how does it earn more money?

Well, first we have to understand how the Masters makes money:

• Merchandise: $69 million

• Tickets/Badges: $39 million

• International TV Rights: $25 million

• Concessions: $8 million

• Total: $142 million

Now, that is a lot of money but it’s notably missing domestic TV rights and sponsorship revenue, two areas that help the US Open make over $100 million extra every year.

So why doesn’t the Masters take advantage of this revenue too?

Less is More: It’s a deliberate choice to keep the tournament, as well as the course, Augusta National, as pristine as possible.

For example, the TV broadcast of the Masters has just six sponsors:

• AT&T

• Delta

• IBM

• Mercedes Benz

• Rolex

• UPS

And they all have to split just four minutes of commercial time per hour of event coverage, plus no sponsors are allowed to have signs on the course.

In return for this level of control, the Masters doesn’t require any of the networks to pay to air the event. Instead, CBS and ESPN get most of the sponsorship revenue and the Masters gets full control over the broadcast.

But that’s not all they are giving up, because the Masters also famously underprices its tickets and concessions.

In 2022, the tournament brought in an estimated $40M in ticket sales and $8M in concessions revenue.

But experts believe that if they priced each to maximize revenue they could bring in four times as much for a combined $197M in revenue every year.

Not to mention, if they sold on-course sponsorships and domestic TV rights they could clear an additional $120M in revenue since they don’t currently make any money from either.

On the Table: If you add that all up, Forbes estimates that the Masters could make over $400 million in revenue every year, which is $269M more than they currently make.

But for the Masters, it’s less about maximizing revenue and more about maintaining the unique experience, which is why they’re constantly regarded as one of the most valuable brands in all of sports.

And, honestly, I wish more events took note.

📉 Biggest Loser

With a capacity of 405,000, this would have been the largest stadium ever built; so why was it never finished?

Olympics as Propaganda: In 1931, Germany was awarded hosting privileges to the 1936 Olympics and, wanting to show off to the rest of the world, the country’s new chancellor, requested a new, 100,000-seat stadium be built.

Adolf Hitler understood that the games would be a great propaganda tool for Germany (and they were), but even the new Olympic Stadium proved to be too small for Hitler.

Hitler’s Vision: The following year, in 1937, Hitler demanded that another new stadium be built, but this time one that could hold 405,000 people (which would still be the largest in the world and four times the size of the largest stadium in America, Michigan’s Big House).

Germany’s lead architect, Albert Speer, was tasked with designing the stadium and settled on a look that he said was modeled after the Greek Panathenaic Stadium, with its long, oval shape and horseshoe layout.

To fit almost half a million people, it would feature five tiers of seating, with 300-foot tall grandstands, and would be built out of pink granite blocks.

Speer reportedly stressed to Hitler how expensive the stadium would be, but Hitler said that it was worth it since it would still cost less than building two battleships.

The eventual vision for the stadium was to host the Olympics every year once Germany won World War II and replace them with the “Aryan Games.”

Deutsches Stadion Revealed: At the ground-breaking ceremony in Nuremberg, in September 1937, Hitler revealed a 6-foot high model of the Deutsches Stadion to a crowd of thousands, but before the real thing could be built a 1:1 scale “test” was ordered to be built 25-miles outside of the city.

Over the next 18 months, 400 German workers built a section of stadium seating that could hold 40,000 people, which was only 1/10 of the final design.

In fact, the remnants of that initial test can still be seen today.

Aftermath: Deutsches Stadion was initially set to be completed by 1943, but as the war intensified and advisors in the party started mysteriously disappearing, Albert Speer was reassigned by Hitler to Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production where he led the efforts to further exploit slave labor for the German war effort.

Speer was later tried and imprisoned for his crimes during the war and the stadium was, of course, never finished.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

One Masters Green Jacket can be worth up to $300,000 but if you win one you’re not actually allowed to keep it.

And that’s not even the craziest rule surrounding these things.

But first, why does the Masters even hand out Green Jackets in the first place?

In The Beginning: The story starts in 1927, when the designer of Augusta National Golf Course and co-founder of the Masters tournament, Bobby Jones, took a trip to England and noticed that former captains of the Royal Liver Pool Golf Club wore red hunting jackets.

He liked how they looked, so when Augusta National opened in 1933 Jones proposed issuing a jacket to every member of the new club.

They settled on green to represent the azalea bushes found around the course and then, starting in 1937, every Augusta National member who attended the Masters had to wear their “Green Jacket” so that visitors could pick them out of the crowd and ask them for directions.

Join the Club: Starting in 1949, winners of the Masters started receiving these same “Green Jackets” to signify their honorary membership to Augusta National, but this tradition also came with a long list of rules:

For starters, only first-time winners are allowed to take their jacket off of club grounds, and even then they can only have it for 12 months before they have to return it to the Champions Locker room at Augusta National.

Past winners are only allowed to wear the jacket once a year during Masters week and only within the strict confines of the clubhouse.

How Much? You might think the rules are so strict because these jackets cost thousands to make, but they’ve actually been made by Hamilton Tailoring Company of Cincinnati since 1967 and cost just $250 to cut, stitch, and sew.

Jailbreak: Even with all of these strict guidelines, several jackets have still managed to escape from Augusta.

For example, in 1994, a genuine Green Jack turned up in a Toronto thrift shop. The Canadian journalist who found it paid just $5 for it, eventually reselling it in 2017 for $139,000.

This obviously caught the attention of Augusta National, and they sued the auction site that listed the jacket.

Clamping Down: As it turns out, the club wasn’t as strict with the rules around the jackets before the 1960s but then Gary Player took it back home to South Africa with him in 1961 and Augusta made him promise not to wear it in public.

And the very next year they introduced the rules that said winners must keep their jackets at the course year-round.

However, that didn’t stop Bobby Jones’ original 1937 Green Jacket from being sold at auction for $310,700 in 2011.

Today, the Masters gives players a replica version of the jacket to take home with them, but besides that, you’ll rarely see these things outside of Augusta, Georgia.

⏱ In Other News

• You can’t say that (at the Masters, at least).

• You gotta pay for that.

• I’m not against gambling but this seems forced (plus, read the room).

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👋 Much like the Masters, Game 1 of our high school baseball season was postponed due to rain. So you’ll have to wait another week for an update 🤞🏻

Happy Friday!