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Sky-high ticket costs at the Ryder Cup are an ominous sign for fans

The news hit golf fans last fall like a punch in the wallet: Ryder Cup ticket prices start at $750 apiece. For a fanbase conditioned by the artificially low prices for Masters tickets — roughly one-sixth of a Ryder Cup entry — the PGA of America’s decision to wrap its tickets in metaphorical gold seemed like a massive overreach. And then every ticket sold out in 48 hours, suggesting that if anything, $750 per was too low.

The Ryder Cup is here now, and ticket prices for Friday and Saturday on the secondary market are running in the $1100-apiece range, while Sunday is slightly lower, occasionally dipping below the $1000 mark depending on when you refresh your browser.

One day. One person. One thousand dollars. (Minimum.) That’s a hell of a lot to pay for a single event, even if you get food and (non-alcoholic) beverages for free when you’re on the course.

Oh, and as for beer and cocktails? Yeah, forget the Masters pricing model there, too. They start at $15 and go up from there:

If you’re not appreciating these excessive event costs, you’re not alone … but you’re also not driving this ship, either. The Ryder Cup, along with the Super Bowl, Formula 1 and the Masters, is one of those Elite Sports Experiences that makes enterprising promoters salivate at the thought of all those potential corporate dollars. Hence, the triple-decker corporate tents all over Bethpage Black, the escalating tiers of service (you wouldn’t subject your clients to the basic tier, would you?), the skyrocketing cost of entry.

Everything costs more at marquee events now — this is no surprise to literally anyone who is currently alive — and the Ryder Cup is a test case of just how much the market is willing to bear. With an estimated attendance of as much as 300,000 at this week’s event, it’s clear that the market is just fine with paying flight-to-Europe prices for an afternoon on the golf course.

A popular (and probably not entirely false) conspiracy theory making the rounds right after the prices broke was that Ryder Cup organizers were trying to price out the rowdy, mouthy Noo Yawkah types who could turn the Ryder into some combination of a Bills tailgate, the Talladega infield and Hell. Perhaps that’s true, but there’s obviously interest in the opposite end of the spectrum, as in: just how much are well-heeled fans willing to pay to get in the gates?

Worth noting: Even the Masters, long the bastion of hold-the-line price controls, is experimenting with its own “premium patron experience,” called Map & Flag. With weekly passes priced (in 2024) at a reported $17,000 apiece, Map & Flag makes the Ryder Cup look like a bargain. (You are invited to “request consideration” for admission at the official Masters website.)

It’s all part of the ever-escalating cost to be a sports fan in America in the 2020s. What’s it worth to you to visit an event … or, more importantly, to post on social media that you were at the event? Can you really put a price on making your friends, family and followers jealous?

And hey, if you can’t swing the cost of a ticket, you can always watch these big events for no added cost on TV. Unless they’re on streaming, in which case it’s only another $7.99 a month. Come on, you can afford that, can’t you?

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