The Financial Details Behind The 150th Open Championship

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Hey Friends,

The final major of the 2022 golf season has arrived, with The Open Championship set to begin its historic 150th tournament at St. Andrews in Scotland. The world’s best golfers will look to forget about the PGA Tour-LIV Golf drama for at least a few days and compete on the Old Course to win a record-breaking $14 million in prize money.

2022 Open Championship Prize Money

• 1st place: $2.5 million

• 2nd place: $1.45 million

• 3rd place: $930,000

• 4th place: $725,000

• 5th place: $580,000

For context: $14 million in prize money is a 22% increase from last year and a 60% increase from 2016, but it’s still 44% less than the $25 million purse handed out at each LIV Golf event.

And while Tiger Woods arrived in Scotland last week and has been playing practice rounds since, he’s undoubtedly not the favorite—Rory McIlroy has the best odds at 9-1, followed by Xander Schauffele, Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, and Jordan Spieth.

2022 Open Championship Odds

• Rory McIlroy 9-1

• Xander Schauffele 14-1

• Jon Rahm 14-1

• Scottie Scheffler 16-1

• Jordan Spieth 16-1

• Matthew Fitzpatrick 18-1

• Justin Thomas 18-1

• Shane Lowry 22-1

• Collin Morikawa 25-1

• Will Zalatoris 25-1

But outside of prize money and championship-winning odds, the economics behind The Open are pretty fascinating. So let’s run through a few of my favorite categories.

The Open is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and therefore, also the world’s oldest major championship. It is run by The R&A governing body and rotates between 10 golf courses in the UK—Royal Liverpool & Royal Troon will host in 2023 and 2024.

And while St. Andrews hasn’t hosted the tournament since 2015, the 2021 numbers from the 149th Open at Royal St George’s Golf Club in Sandwich, England, shed light on what we can expect from an economic impact perspective, at least directionally.

For example, the town of Kent, England, estimates it received more than $150 million in total economic value. That includes ticket sales, hotel rooms, food and beverage, and more. But the interesting part is that only 128,300 fans attended out of the normal 210,000-plus due to COVID restrictions from the UK government.

So given that the crowd will be full this year, and it’s the 150th anniversary back at “The Home of Golf,” many people are projecting nearly 300,000 people to visit the Old Course and this year’s Open to have an economic impact of roughly $250 million.

Ticket sales are a big line item, of course. But similar to an iconic tournament like The Masters, event organizers sacrifice ticket revenue to maintain prestige and class.

And here are a few other interesting (financial) facts about the tournament:

• Over 100 million people watch the tournament each year globally, and The Open receives $50 million annually from NBC Sports to broadcast in the US.

• The total revenue from merchandise sales isn’t known, but considering they construct a massive tent that could hold thousands of people at once, I think it’s fair to say that it’s up there with the 400,000 items the US Open sold in June.

But perhaps my favorite part of The Open is the sleeping arrangements. Sure, you can rent a hotel room for a few hundred dollars a night or a 5-bedroom house near the course for $20,000 for the week, but camping village is the best bang for your buck.

Camping Village is a campsite located near the entrance of The Open. It costs about $60 per adult per night to stay there, and there are three tent sizes available:

• Small (1-2 people)

• Medium (3 to 4 people)

• Large (5 to 6 people)

The tents are actually pretty awesome (this isn’t the Fyre Festival!), and more than 3,600 visitors will be staying in Camping Village this week. But here’s the best part: one person can camp for an entire week at The Open for only £350 (or $418 USD).

That’s incredible value for a big-time sporting event, and it’s without even mentioning they have a clubhouse with a bar, outdoor games, and live music every single night.

So it’s probably not surprising that ~65% of campers are under 25 years old.

So enjoy the tournament. It’s the 150th anniversary—at the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland—and it should be an awesome week.

Have a great day. I’ll talk to everyone tomorrow.

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