Even with a new price hike, Masters ticket remains the greatest deal in sports

Through inheritance or good fortune, those lucky enough to have the opportunity to buy Masters badges at face value each year are well aware that they get the greatest deal in sports. To wit: The cheapest face value of a midcourt, lower-bowl ticket for a regular-season New York Knicks game is $475, and a field-level seat for season ticket holders at a Dodgers game in the most recent World Series was $1,500. Want to attend the World Cup final at the Meadowlands in July? The average face-value price is $1,400.

By comparison, the price to be on the grounds at Augusta National Golf Club in April for four days is almost laughably low, even when the costs take a tick up, as they are this year.

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As reported by Golfweek, a four-day series badge for this year’s Masters has exceeded $500 for the first time in the tournament’s history. The news was delivered via email to patrons this week, and the price is $525—up from the $450 mark that was in place since 2023.

That’s a 16-percent increase, but still nothing to even blink at when you consider that four-day Masters badges on the secondary market are currently going for $8,000 per person.

The cost of Masters tickets has risen slower than just about anything in American sports. A ticket to the inaugral Masters in 1934 was $2 and rose to $10 by the late 1940s. Four-day badges were still less than $100 in the early 1990s and they didn’t rise to $125 until 2001.(A Super Bowl ticket at face value in '01 was $325.)

That price lasted eight years, until hitting $200 in 2009, followed by a $50 increase in 2012 and a $75 rise to $325 in 2015.

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What hasn’t changed are the eye-popping low prices once you’re inside the gates. Last year, an egg salad sandwich was still $1.50, and the most expensive sandwiches were $3. Soft drinks and bottled water were $2 and a domestic beer was $6. One reporter at USA Today tallied up all of the item costs and arrived at a total of $77 if you bought everything on the menu.

This year’s Masters, with Rory McIlroy as the defending champion, is set for April 9-12.