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Plyler's Blog: The Augusta National Model
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Plyler's Blog: The Augusta National Model


Apr 8, 2014, 10:29 AM

The Augusta National Model

The Augusta National Model
I had a chance to do one of my favorite things Monday when I got invited to a practice round for the Masters at Augusta National.

Mother Nature limited the day to only two and a half hours but it was still nice to get back to one of the greatest places on Earth


Full Story »


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Re: Plyler's Blog: The Augusta National Model


Apr 8, 2014, 10:36 AM

we'll be wanting the good old days of $4 bottled water back this year when it goes to $5. :)

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Hey, Mickey


Apr 8, 2014, 10:56 AM

You left out the best thing Augusta Nat. has done recently, which was to get rid of that stupid USuC grad Hootie Johnson and replace him with Billy Payne as Chairman.

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Does Augusta really make that much money?


Apr 8, 2014, 12:00 PM

Serious question: if Augusta really does have so much money, where does it come from?

1. Members? They only have 300 members and the yearly dues are $10,0000 with a one time membership fee somewhere between $10,000 and $30,000. Compare that to IPTAY, which has over 15,000 donors. Just looking at a small subset of the IPTAY donors, there are more than 300 donors a year who give more than $100,000. I just don't understand how 300 members of Augusta National are giving more than the 15,000 IPTAY members. It seems to me that even people with more money than they know what to do with would be less likely to give it to Augusta than to some other cause. Bill Gates, for example. Yes, he is a member. Yes, he has more money than he knows what to do with. But I just don't see him giving millions of dollars (that he doesn't have to give) to Augusta when he could be investing that money in one of his charities. I could, on the other hand, see him donating millions of dollars to the university he graduated from (if he had graduated from one).

2. TV revenue? Only 10-13 million people watch the Masters at the peak of its ratings. 27 million people watched the BCS Championship game. Over 8 million watched the Clemson-Georgia game. I understand that Clemson gets only a fraction of the tv revenue, but there is no way that CBS pays more for the Masters than Clemson gets from it's tv contracts. The contract with ESPN alone is worth nearly $18 million a year to Clemson.

What am I missing? I hear people say all the time how wealthy Augusta National is, but I just don't see it. Are people just assuming that just because they have some wealthy members that means those members are giving them tens of millions of dollars more than they have to every year.

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TV revenue probably is enough to float the bills for the


Apr 8, 2014, 12:08 PM

entire year at the AGNC. Considering current and past members, however, I would imagine that they have a frighteningly large endowment fund.

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A couple of guesses:


Apr 8, 2014, 12:09 PM [ in reply to Does Augusta really make that much money? ]

Keep in mind these are just my guesses, not based on actual facts.

1. Just because dues and initiation is low, doesn't mean that they couldn't bill members for large amounts for capital projects. Regular country clubs do this too, although they try to limit it as much as possible. If they want to buy more land for parking, build new buildings, etc., they could just bill the members. They may be doing this constantly, because they know the membership won't get upset because they can afford it.

2. Not sure where you got the ratings from or what exactly the ratings are measuring, but you have to take in account the fact that the golf Channel, CBS, and ESPN are running coverage Monday through Sunday, and for 10 hours a day Thursday-Sunday (counting the replay). So there is a lot more time than a 3 hour football game.

Again, just a couple of guesses.

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Regarding capital projects


Apr 8, 2014, 12:31 PM

An old member of Augusta told me this story. Back when Clifford Roberts was the Chairman, there was an ugly ditch which ran across the first fairway at the bottom of the hill. One day Roberts was playing with a member from up north, and the member topped his drive into the ditch. The member told Roberts that he should do something about the ditch.

The next fall the member received a note from Roberts that read something like this: "I acted upon your recommendation and had the ditch on #1 filled in. While the firm that did the work was on the property, I took the liberty of having them make a few other minor improvements to the course." Accompanying the note was an invoice for more than $250,000. The member had no choice but to pay the bill, for he knew if he didn't he would no longer be a member of the club. According to the guy who told me the story that particular member never made any other recommendations to Roberts.

In addition, every cottage on the course was built by individual members. The Chairman of the firm I used to work for was a member of Augusta, and he told me that he was always afraid that Roberts was going to approach him and say that it might be time for the club to build another cottage. That would have been a signal that he had been the person selected to build another cottage.

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Re: Does Augusta really make that much money?


Apr 8, 2014, 2:53 PM [ in reply to Does Augusta really make that much money? ]

CBS gives a lot of money each year to televise the Masters. Much more than Clemson gets from any television contract. Throw in Cadillac, IBM, Exxon and AT&T although I'm not sure Cadillac sponsors anymore. I think Mercedez is a sponsor now. Trust me, ANGC is getting a lot of money.

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