It might cost an arm and a leg to attend the Masters, but once you’re inside the gates of the famous golf tournament, the food is dirt cheap.
People online are expressing surprise at just how affordable the Masters Tournament concession menu is, especially considering how often professional sports fans feel gouged by venue liquor and food prices.
At Augusta National Golf Club this weekend, for example, you can pick up the course’s iconic pimento or egg salad sandwiches for just US$1.50. And the more substantial clubhouse or pulled pork sandwiches will only set you back $3.
Most of the snack items fall under $2, with the only exception being the Georgia peach ice cream sandwich, which is listed for $3 (and likely worth the extra buck!)
A small portion of the tournament menu, however, did increase from last year. The price of a beer increased to $6 from $5, the Crows Nest specialty beer jumped to $6 from $5, the Georgia pecan caramel popcorn went to $2 from $1.50 and the ice cream sandwich moved to $3 from $2.50.
With just a few increases on a few items, Augusta doesn’t seem to be following food inflation trends that have hit people’s pocketbooks in recent years — in fact, prices at the golf club have mostly remained fixed for years.
Even if you ordered one of everything on the Masters menu, you would still shell out less than US$70.
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“I kind of knew about the prices from seeing it on social media,” Jimmy Murray, a 32-year old from Minneapolis at the tournament this year, told the Associated Press. “I’ve had about everything on menu I could eat and I think I paid $10.50.”
Augusta National’s pricing strategy makes those of us who have become accustomed to shelling out upwards of $15 for a beer or $12 for a slice of pizza in Canada’s pro sports stadiums a bit envious, but it’s also worth noting that Masters attendees who buy tickets on the secondary market are set back, at very minimum, thousands of dollars to watch just one day of the tournament.
Sports stadiums are notoriously cagey about their food and drink prices, often only revealing their prices once customers are inside the facility.
However, some high-profile sporting events do what they can to honour food traditions and keep the price of their most popular foods low. For example, the cost of strawberries and cream at the world’s oldest tennis championships, Wimbledon, has not increased since 2010 and costs just £2.50 (CA$4.30).
The 2024 Masters begins with the opening round on Thursday and concludes on Sunday.
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