Sports events (including places that accommodate them) were once designed for the masses. Now they are increasingly repackaging to provide more and more luxury goods and exclusivity – understandably trying to maximize profits, but there are still related costs.
Consider some of Augusta’s recent, seemingly unrelated news centered around Georgia City’s famous golf championship Masters The Masters.
Last week, Sports Business Magazine detailed the 2026 “Official Masters Hospitality” program. It includes providing housing, transportation, catering, etc. to companies and/or wealthy companies. Consider the “full scale, private family plan” which will give you $219,600 a week.
The news comes a few days after announcing that a local Hooters restaurant (a brief stroll from Augusta National Golf Club) is about to close.
Nationwide, the chain is known for its wings, er, other things. However, Augusta Hooters is the institution of Masters Week, a place where everyone relaxes after spending a day in the game.
It talks with the dichotomy of the club’s Augusta and the city’s Augusta. The former is the most unique country club in the United States, located on both formal and pristine grounds. The latter, especially Washington Road from Interstate 20 to Magnolia Lane, is a snapshot of Central American consumerism’s striptease trip. Traffic lights and driveways, tacos and tire shops.
Perhaps this contrast is not defined as ridiculously as the hotters, which exploits its sharp contrast by building a huge tent that deals with the overflowing crowds. It hosted a Miss Green Jacket contest and clung to the chain’s slogan – “pleasant cheesy, but unrefined”, which is the opposite of Prim and Comporry Country Club.
Hooters are best known in recent years for John Daly parking his RV outside, allowing fans to drink, smoke and buy merchandise from the ultimate folk hero of golf. Not surprisingly, parties are often cheerful and cheerful. Daly once told me that his presence was even written into the restaurant’s lease – “As long as they don’t get mad at me for signing the girl’s ass, I’ll do it,” he joked.
No, this experience doesn’t require the piano key to play as a lens for Rae’s Creek, but for many, it’s a different tradition than others if you want.
Now, the Hooters are closed, and while Daly will undoubtedly find a new habitat, Master Week’s experience changes slowly but mercilessly.
Augusta National spent hundreds of millions of dollars to use LLC to purchase properties outside its original footprint, according to the Wall Street Journal. This is not only for expansion, but for control.
City streets have now been diverted. Now, a small park is privately owned by Augusta. Most notably, the club basically bought an entire community, promoted it, and turned it into a grass car park for customers.
The club even owns Hooters’ home shopping plaza. No, Augusta National did not close the chicken wing joints. The chain Hooters struggles everywhere. At Augusta, business has proven that the other 51 weeks of the year are not good enough.
Of course, having an adjacent community full of potential customers may not help.
Clubs are famous secrets, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the ultimate goal is to go from the motorway to the club’s exclusive ramp and bypass the club-controlled housing and hospitality.
It’s a trend, with stadiums increasingly building luxury boxes and numerous exclusive clubs – from court to behind home plates.
Sports is a business, so it is not to condemn anyone to meet demand. Organizations are just cashing in the “next door” phenomenon, and people want people who are more special than what is already special.
However, for better or worse, this phenomenon not only changes the dynamics of the site, but also changes the area around the site. If you are waiting for your full-blown diet and beverage store, you don’t need to enter an old bar or a family-owned pizza place across from the stadium. It separates fans and cuts into the shared experience.
Even the television broadcasts of baseball and basketball games may vary, and the general seats are clearly empty. The holder did not broadcast the action live, but returned to the private lounge to drink. It can soak in the atmosphere.
Any changes to the Masters are worth noting as the event has long resisted the relaxed Bucks. Badges are still affordable. Parking is free. Cell phones are prohibited. There is no internal access or preferred seating, let alone ads or video boards.
The Masters are like going back in time – grab a pizza sandwich ($1.50) and beer ($6) and sit on the folding chair you bring to your own. It’s incredible. Bucket list stuff.
However, in 2012, Augusta National opened Berckmans Place, a 90,000-square-foot hotel center with five restaurants. The corporate crowd rushed. Suddenly there are more. Not every fan is equal.
Then in 2024, in order to cut back on the previous and after experiences that once left to local restaurants and businesses, Augusta State revealed the map and flag, a large hotel center, right outside the gate.
The facility offers valet parking, food and drinks, according to promotional materials, “Advanced Patron Experience…only Levels of Service Found in the Masters”. Sports Business Magazine reports that the weekly badge costs $17,000.
Augusta National only meets the needs, so it’s all fair game. The club has done a lot of charity throughout and around the city.
Still, like all these developments, as more and more luxury goods on one end (as more and more fans flake to the interior venues), local attractions are getting fewer and fewer customers for a bottomless pocket organization.
Perhaps the Downing beer in the hotters parking lot with John Daly is not a “level of service found only in the Masters”.
Again, maybe better.
