Super Bowl Will Be Test of New Nielsen Measurement
The crowd at the 2025 Masters was treated to a thrilling finish, with Rory McIlroy besting Justin Rose in a one-hole playoff to complete the career Grand Slam. But not all the buzz at Augusta National this year was about the golf.
Hundreds of ticket holders this year were pulled aside by Augusta National representatives and questioned about where they bought their tickets and whether they had a direct connection to the original badge holder. Many had their passes canceled for the weekend.
Sources in the ticketing and hospitality business widely believe it was all part of preparation for big changes to the Masters ticketing process coming next year, including a larger role for hospitality giant On Location.
To understand why this is such a big deal, one must first understand the steadfast traditions and restrictions of The Masters. The golf course has a long-running ban on phones and thus does not accept digital tickets. All tickets are physical badges—either lanyard or paper passes that must be displayed around a person’s neck or on their belt loop, wrist, etc.—distributed directly by Augusta National, with strict rules against reselling.
“As a reminder, Augusta National, Inc. is the only authorized source/seller of Masters® Tickets,” the official Masters website reads. “The resale of any Masters Ticket is strictly prohibited. Holders of Tickets acquired from third parties, by whatever means, may be excluded from attendance to the Tournament.”
Despite the strict rules, the club historically looked the other way, for the most part, and fans were accustomed to a wild resale market unlike any other golf tournament.
Scalpers camp out at gas stations, motels, and restaurant parking lots a few miles from Augusta National, selling daily tickets marked up for thousands of dollars.
That all changed this year, as Augusta National enforced its no-resell policy much more strictly than it had in previous years. The standard procedures of secondary ticketing businesses—accustomed to effectively operating in the gray area—came back to bite them. They found many of their customers turned away at the gates, or in some cases pulled aside even after they had already gotten in.
Tickets to The Masters are an extremely hot commodity. The face value of practice-round tickets this year was $100, and tournament days cost $140. But on secondary ticketing platforms, prices for the final round were as high as $8,000, according to Cllct, which wrote about the crackdown earlier this week.
“It was a bloodbath,” one hospitality company executive told Front Office Sports. “Several of our customers were interrogated on arrival, and about half of those badges were canceled. And here’s the worst part: A ticket that scanned with no problem Thursday and Friday would get targeted Saturday.” The executive added that some fans who had their badges confiscated received one-day passes to stay on the grounds.
Another source pointed out that Augusta National wants to control as many aspects as possible of what is happening around town during Masters week. “They want to eliminate an uncontrolled, unregulated, secondary ticket market,” the source said.
Outside of the annual Masters ticket lottery—some people go decades without winning—many tickets originate from lifetime Masters Series Badges, which includes a list of patrons who were grandfathered into the old system that has not been open to new applications since 2000.
If Augusta National learns a lifetime badge holder has been selling their passes, they revoke them; those lifetime passes also do not transfer within a family after a person dies. Sources say Augusta National watches local obituaries closely and when a patron with tickets dies, those tickets get canceled.
The reselling ban is a marked difference from the three other men’s major championships. The USGA has a deal with AXS for U.S. Open tickets; the PGA of America’s official ticket partner for the PGA Championship is SeatGeek; and the R&A uses a number of authorized ticket partners for the Open Championship (also known as the British Open).
Augusta National has always operated the distribution of its own tickets—from single-day general-admission practice-round passes to weeklong VIP badges—in-house, which is a rarity for such a major sporting event.
But one of the worst-kept secrets among Masters insiders is that On Location, the live event and hospitality powerhouse Endeavor acquired for $660 million in 2020, has for the past two years quietly operated Map & Flag, which Augusta National calls “the first and only official Masters hospitality experience outside the gates of Augusta National Golf Club.”
Map & Flag opened in 2024 across the street from Augusta National and added a second floor this year. Roughly 2,500 Map & Flag passes sold this year, for around $17,000 each. The space is a complement to Augusta National’s ultra-exclusive on-course hospitality space Berckmans Place, which is a popular hangout spot for Green Jacket–clad club members and is also said to be operated, at least in part, by On Location. (TKO, the division of Endeavor that now includes On Location, did not respond to requests for comment for this story.)
On Location also operates ticketing for the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four, Olympics, and many other major sporting events. Its official golf partnerships include the Ryder Cup and PGA Championship, which are both run by the PGA of America.
Ticketing industry insiders widely expect On Location is about to become a more significant partner of The Masters, multiple sources tell FOS. An Augusta National spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Lodging plays a big part in this process since luxury hotels are so scant in the area surrounding Augusta National. Many local operators will offer premium packages that include a place to stay, all-inclusive food and beverages, and tickets that were acquired via resale. Even ordinary local citizens who have lifetime badges will sometimes rent their house out for the week and include tournament tickets to up the price.
Those independent businesses obviously do not make Augusta National money, so where On Location likely fits into all this is helping the club manage a more modern approach to ticketing and hospitality.
Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley alluded to potential expansion in the future during his pre-Masters press conference last week. “I’m pleased to share that the hospitality offering across Washington Road that we’ve named Map & Flag is now fully open,” Ridley said. “The popularity of this venue inspires us to consider what else may be possible in future years.”
The widespread theory around Augusta this year was that Augusta National is buying up property around the course with an eye toward building more places like Map & Flag at various price points. The more official hospitality venues Augusta National owns, the more VIP tickets it can sell and profit from.
Currently, all Masters hospitality, like general tickets, is sold directly through the club. In the future, On Location could be the main operator for any such new venues ultimately in the works.
What would change for fans? Potentially more options available, albeit expensive ones.
Take On Location’s current offer to buy priority access for Super Bowl LX tickets next February. For a $2,500 deposit, NFL fans can receive early access to official Super Bowl tickets before the general public. The deposit does apply to the final sale price. On Location has 2025 Ryder Cup packages available for $1,100 and $1,350 per person. Perhaps On Location would roll out similar offerings around The Masters, giving fans a second chance at buying tickets outside of Augusta’s lottery.
Despite all of the looming changes, it is still possible Augusta National will keep its ticketing and hospitality services in-house—at least publicly. On Location may end up playing a larger role but still in the background. This is not all that different from how Augusta National operates with other mainstream partners. It’s no secret that Coca-Cola supplies the “cola” and “diet cola” at concession stands, for example.
Applications to “request consideration” for 2026 Map & Flag passes are currently open, and applications for the standard Masters ticket lottery for 2026 will open June 1.
