The blue skies and green grass of Augusta National Spring has sprung.
Now round two of the 2026 Masters gets underway with defending champ Rory McIlroy tied for the lead and big name Bryson Debo in danger of missing the cut.
Now while go golf enthusiasts view the Augusta grounds as magical, they're.
Also seeing something special about the prices.
The courses concession stand menu is making headlines as usual as many fans can't believe the cheap prices.
A Georgia peach ice cream sandwich costs just $3 while popcorn and candy for each priced at $2.
Well joining me to weigh in this morning is Rick Horrow, a Sports Business Analyst at FINTECH.TV.
Rick, happy Friday.
Good morning to you.
So at this year's Masters, there are some competitors and defending champ Rory McIlroy with a strong day one meanwhile eyes are on Scottish Scheffler.
So take us through the key storylines you're watching on the course and also tell us about some of those gnomes on the ground.
Well, here are the key storylines.
First of all, that is one of like 38 hats that I bought because everybody, whether they know that the Masters golf ball has blown up or knitted, they want a Masters hat because everybody wants one.
So this is not for sale, but you lucky 13 people, I'll be dealing with you later on.
The gnomes are another story.
They're selling for 150 bucks.
You get there early.
The bottom line is there's a markup of it and just like a hedge fund, I'm going to mark mine up.
I'll sell it to you at a discount for 1200 bucks.
They are amazing. $70 million in merchandise that they admit to at the Masters.
They could do more.
The catering is ironic because I know we'll talk about it as well.
That is, I don't know if we're supposed to show it, but that's the official price list at the concession stand.
And you know, the hat's a lot of money.
Just spent over $1000 for concessions or merch, but yet the egg salad sandwich, 1.5 cents.
Pimento cheese, 1.5 cents.
Turkey.
A buck and a half.
I mean, are you kidding?
Now, there's the gnome.
There's the gnome.
All right, it looks like John Daly, uh, a markup deal, 1200 bucks for you.
I'll only make a 900% profit.
He's ugly, by the way.
He's ugly, by the way.
Yeah, Rick.
Well it's really funny because of course all of us are paying attention to what's happening with the players on the ground, but a lot of headlines out there regarding this year's Masters, especially given those prices at the concession stand, especially given inflation right now.
So what do you think tournament goers should be most excited about, especially since there are so many.
Lines on the ground, it seems not just for food but also for merchandise.
Well, here's the deal.
It is an attendance record every year because there is so much demand that the Masters really controls supply.
The badges say 150 bucks on them for a practice round, and nobody pays 150 bucks for them.
I can guarantee you there's a whole cottage industry across Washington Road for hospital.
Hospitality and the corporate hospitality is tremendous, you know, from the television perspective we talked about that before 100 hours of exclusive programming.
All of the corporations obviously wait till this time to activate.
AT&T, IBM, Mercedes-Benz, and Bank of America are the four wonderful partners.
They're called champion partners.
That means they spend a lot more money than others.
They get commercials.
There are not many commercials, and Amazon Prime, as well as ESPN as well as Paramount and CBS get the one year deals, 71 years, Remy, of one year extensions by CBS and Paramount, 100 free hours of television, and everybody has master's parties, including mine.
I'm going to capitalize on my gnome and fly up there and see you.
Well, as you mentioned, Rick, Amazon Prime Video became the 4th media partner in Masters history with a few hours of coverage yesterday.
So when it comes to the impact on the ground in the Augusta area, tell us what's happening because everything is better in real life, isn't it?
Yeah, it's an amazing place.
If you haven't gone, pay the money, suck it up, go.
It is a bucket list item whether you like golf or not.
And at the end of the day, the tournament generates about $150 million of economic impact, maybe 120 or so.
It's a little more than that, 250,000 visitors on the ground.
You see the Masters economy breakdown in front of you.
It's more than that because more and more suburbs, Atlanta, they're all taking advantage of Masters Week.
And let's remember, Remy, the majors for us.
Golf geeks really important to us, but the Masters is the only one that doesn't move around from place to place.
So when we scheduled our incredible visit with Jack Nicklaus that I wanted to get in there, who was coming to my house last week to announce a first tee plan, we did it well in advance because everybody knows the Masters is going to be April 8th, 9, 10th, 1112, and it doesn't change every year, any year.
And finally, I do want to switch out the 9 iron for the gridiron at the Department of Justice is looking into whether the National Football League is forcing fans to pay too much for subscriptions.
Now the NFL says 87% of its games are free, but the government says this is about leveling the playing field for consumers.
So what should we be watching for here.
I'll watch for your producer to continue to do those cheap transitions.
That was pretty darn good.
But at the end of the day, the Sports Broadcast Act of 1961 was not written to cover satellite streaming and cable.
It wasn't around in 1961, so it's open to interpretation.
The NFL and other networks say they do a great job, as you said, 80% of the games are free.
100% of the games in local.
Market.
If you're in a local market, you have to by mandate by the NFL be able to watch it. $11 billion in total television revenue yearly, including NFL Network and Prime and ESPN and Netflix.
And yeah, you've got to pay for a subscription for that.
NFL would argue it's a small number of games like other sports, so we'll see how it all shakes out.
Well Rick, it was great talking to you.
Thank you so much for joining us on this Friday morning and have a good time this weekend, Rick.
Gnome and had package 1300 bucks now.
