Rather than simply put the tickets on sale at a box office year after year, club officials effectively organize a lottery for entry to the tournament. Series badges, which allow someone to buy tickets each year, are fully subscribed, according to Augusta National. The waiting list for those badges has been closed since 2000, when it reopened briefly for the first time since 1978.
The system has made ticket scarcity as much a Masters tradition as the pimento cheese sandwiches ($1.50 apiece at last years tournament) and turned the tournament into a beacon for scalpers, who oftentimes procure tickets from rule-defying series badge holders, and buyers alike.
Since Augusta National announced this years ban on patrons, Stephens, who mostly works with companies that buy tickets for employees or valued clients ahead of the tournament, has spent much of her time refunding sales that she said were collectively worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Properties near the club that she rented out for the tournament are sitting empty.
Its like a tight ball of yarn that were unwinding, she said. Im a person of faith, and I dont know why, but Ive handled this really well.
Other brokers assuredly have less liquidity and have buckled. Some have declared bankruptcy, and experts believe more will follow.
Although DiZoglio described Masters scalpers as the stronger of the lot, the resale industry has long been replete with stress that has sometimes reached tragic extremes. In 1997, the year Tiger Woods first won the Masters, a broker who could not fill an order for about 100 badges killed himself.
More commonly, brokers eye weather forecasts and hope washouts dont render tickets useless or relegated to bargain-basement prices. A weeks worth of rain could destroy a lot of brokers, said DiZoglio, who added that he had enough in savings to manage without a Masters this year.read more
A Lack of Fans at the Masters Strains Those Who Would Sell the Experience
