The Masters generates roughly $70 million in merchandise sales alone during tournament week, with tickets reaching $10,000 for four days and the winner taking home $3.4 million. Sponsorship is tightly controlled: only six brands get four minutes of airtime per hour, and private-jet parking costs VIPs up to $3,000 a day.
The dollars involved in the Masters Golf Tournament are mind-blowing. Held each year in Augusta, Georgia, the Masters has an $18 million prize pool. Champion Rahm took home $3.4 million. Second place took home $1.58 million. Not too bad for hitting a tiny little ball in a tiny little hole with a big long stick. But that's not all. 4-day passes to attend can cost up to $10,000, and an estimated 250,000 people pay that much to attend live. The Masters will also sell $70 million in merchandise in just a week. That's $277 in sales per second. The Masters has only 6 sponsors who split just 4 minutes per hour of coverage. Compare that to the Super Bowl, which feels like it's all commercials. But most of that money they take in from TV goes to CBS and ESPN for their TV production. A modest 4-bedroom can rent for $10,000 just during the week. Oh, and private jet traffic is just like Super Bowl week. Up to 30,000 VIPs arrive in just the week of the Masters via private planes, and they will pay up to $3,000 per day just to park those planes. The Masters may not be the Super Bowl in scale, but the money is insane.
