Sports and Money

     Having just written about BOOZE, I will now turn to two subjects which are even more important. Sports are infrequently mentioned in MM and I have generally lost interest in watching most of them, but I am sure you remain interested and will read on because of the mention of money. Although they are often related, they are treated separately here since I have already covered gambling and betting. Short bits are offered while we await the return of the muse who will produce lengthier and very thoughtful posts. (Note: If you actually make it to somewhere near the end of this post, there should be some mention of a guy who owns 7,000 cars.)

Event Planning:
  You are reminded here to start putting games in your calendar since many fans already have. These were noticed a while back in a Facebook post:

Those are college football games, but don't forget about the NFL. As Jason Gay noted in the Wall Street Journal: “Everywhere I look, the page has turned, and turned long ago — to football, football, football. Forget what the calendar says. The N.F.L. media is now the pharmacy that puts out its Christmas stuff during the first week of June.”

And before you do your Christmas shopping, do buy tickets for Dec. 25 for basketball games.

"NBA Christmas Day, Opening Night games feature Lakers, Warriors, Thunder,"
"The first NBA game on NBC in 23 years will feature the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder against perhaps their chief competition in the West, and the Cleveland Cavaliers are back on Christmas Day for the first time since the LeBron James era, league and network sources confirmed to The Athletic on Friday....
This coming season is the first of an 11-year, $75 billion national TV contract for the NBA, which features a new partnership with Amazon and a reuniting of the league with NBC. ESPN and ABC remain partners — and will carry Christmas Day games per usual...
ESPN was the first to report NBC’s opening night slate as well as the five Christmas Day games, which are:
Cleveland at the New York Knicks
San Antonio at Oklahoma City
Houston at the Lakers
Dallas at Golden State
Minnesota at Denver.

 Fighting:
   UFC stands for "Ultimate Fighting Championship" and it involves men fighting in cages. Such brutality is reluctantly allowed up here as long as the affair is conducted in English and French. But, the political importance of the UFC has been noticed even in the Globe & Mail:

"All the Rage: How the UFC Became America’s Most Important (and Misunderstood) Political Powerhouse," Sam Egan, Aug. 8, 2025: 
   "The UFC played an unexpected role in the second election of Donald Trump to the White House. But politicians of all stripes in the U.S. should take heed of its followers if they hope to retain, or gain, voters."

  Wait, there's more:

"White House Cage Fight Is 'Going to Happen' --- Dana White's Octagon Behemoth Gets a $7.7 billion Deal with Paramount. Now the Promoter is Planning a South Lawn Event," Jason Gay, WSJ, August 13, 2025.
     
Fishing:
   I told you about the White Marlin Open in "Fishing For Money" and lots of money was won again this year as you can see from the chart below. "Catch 23" is the clever name for the boat owned by Michael Jordan, who flew in on his private plane to participate. His boat is an 82-foot Bayliss that costs about $15 million. The $389,377.11 should cover some of the fuel costs.

Boating:

   Some wealthy people just like to float around and a couple of large boats were spotted off Victoria: "Two Super Yachts Spotted in Oak Bay," Oak Bay News, July 28, 2025. 
"The vessels are owned by Las Vegas billionaire Lorenzo Fertitta....

The larger of the two vessels – the 87-metre Lonian – can accommodate dozens of passengers and crew, and even a helicopter."
    And, guess what: The UFC Again
"Two super yachts owned by 56-year-old Las Vegas entrepreneur Lorenzo Fertitta, who Forbes says sold his stake in the Ultimate Fighting Championship for billions in 2016 and 2017, were seen anchored in Oak Bay."

  

   If you are really into boating, why not just buy the shipyard:
"Superyacht-obsessed Gaming Billionaire Just Bought the Entire Shipyard Behind Some Very Iconic Vessels," Henry Kelsall, Superblondie.com. 

   "Gabe Newell has made billions from video games and also has a love for luxury superyachts. However, he has now decided to take that love to another level.

   Instead of just buying another yacht, he has bought the whole Oceanco group, one of the world’s largest superyacht builders, and now owns the company....

   He used to own the Dapple yacht, and recently acquired his $400 million, 367-ft Oceanco yacht, Project Y722.
   With so much money on hand, it’s no wonder that Newell has a net worth estimated to be $9.5 billion."

Flying:
   Avoid Air Canada and buy your own plane so you won't have to worry about your dog. Two examples involve a goldendoodle and a cavapoo, which are apparently some kind of new canine.

1.   "When Maxx Chewning sold his sour-candy business to Hershey for $75.5 million, the first thing he did -- before buying a Rolex or dream home -- was jet his wife and six friends to Vail on a Dassault Falcon 900.

   They skipped security lines, zipped straight to the runway and seated themselves in leather recliners with gold accents in the wood-paneled cabin. The price tag for this adventure: $100,000.

   Chewning's goldendoodle, Dood, sprawled at their feet. "The joke is, I had to get a private plane so I could bring my dog," the 35-year-old said. "I didn't really care what the price was."

 2.  "Tennille Holt, 44, retired in 2023 and now spends much of her time traveling the world with her husband and 8-year-old cavapoo, Hudson. Hudson has his own Instagram account documenting his life, including his private-jet flights, where he is often served his favorite: grilled chicken.

   She and her husband spent about $200,000 to fly Hudson from Australia to Los Angeles in a Bombardier Global 6000 and avoid the commercial flight. She recalls dreaming about this flexibility while working long days and nights as an entrepreneur.

  "The goal was to create the freedom to live life on our own terms, which now includes plenty of travel and the ability to fly privately whenever we want," Holt said. "It's the best and most comfortable option for Hudson."

From: "Private-Jet Money Is New Wealth Yardstick," Gunjan Banerji, WSJ, August 54, 2025.

Golf:

  Rory McIlroy has had a pretty good year and decided to buy a house back in the UK, for which he paid $9 million. The neighbourhood competition is tough, however, and it is difficult  to keep up with the Joneses, when one of them is the Sultan of Brunei. "Meet Rory McIlroy's Billionaire Neighbor with 7,000 Cars, 39 Tigers and $15K Haircut Habit," Jackie Longo, The Sporting News, July 21, 2025. He probably won't be around much: "He primarily resides in the Istana Nurul Iman in Brunei, a residence considered the world's largest palace, boasting a staggering 1,788 rooms."

"A Tradition Unlike Any Other"

    Since that was more related to the Sultan than golf, here is a bit about The Masters. At some point soon, those who attend will need to be more like Members of Augusta than mere fans of the sport. This is from Dan Wetzel, ESPN, Aug 14, 2025:
"Let Them Eat Wings Somewhere Else: The Masters and Masses Part Ways."

  "Sporting events, including the venues that house them, were once designed mostly for the masses. Now they are increasingly being repackaged to deliver more and more luxury and exclusivity -- an understandable attempt to maximize profit, but with an associated cost nonetheless....

  Last week, Sports Business Journal detailed the 2026 "Official Masters Hospitality" program. It included offers of housing, transportation, catering and so on to the corporate and/or well-heeled. Consider the "Full Scale, Private Home Program," which will run you a mere $219,600 for the week.

  That bit of news came days after the announcement that a local Hooters restaurant, just a short stroll from Augusta National Golf Club, is closing.

   Nationally, the chain is known for its wings among, uh, other things. The Augusta Hooters, however, was very much a Masters week institution, a spot for the everyman to relax after a day at the tournament.
  It spoke to the dichotomy of Augusta, the club, and Augusta, the city. The former is the nation's most exclusive country club, located on formal and pristine grounds. The latter, especially on Washington Road leading from Interstate 20 to Magnolia Lane, is a snapshot of strip-mall, middle-American consumerism. Traffic lights and turn lanes, Taco Bells and tire shops.
  Maybe nothing comically defined that contrast as much as the Hooters, which capitalized on its location by setting up a huge tent to handle overflow crowds. It hosted a "Miss Green Jacket" contest and clung to the chain's slogan -- "Delightfully Tacky, Yet Unrefined" -- which is antithetical to the prim and proper country club.... [wasn't it worth reading the entire post, just for that slogan?]

   The Hooters was most famous for, in recent years, having John Daly park his RV outside, allowing fans to drink, smoke cigarettes and buy merch from golf's ultimate folk hero. The party, unsurprisingly, often raged loud and late. Daly once told me his presence was even written into the restaurant's lease -- "As long as they don't get mad at me for signing girls' asses, I'm OK," he joked....
   The club is famously secretive, but it wouldn't surprise anyone if the ultimate goal was an exclusive ramp from the highway to the club, lined with club-controlled housing and hospitality, bypassing Washington Road altogether.

   This is a trend where stadiums increasingly have built not just luxury boxes but numerous exclusive clubs -- from courtside to behind home plate.

    Sports is a business, so this isn't to condemn anyone from meeting a demand. Organizations are just cashing in on the "next door" phenomenon of people wanting something more special than what's already special."

  We visited The Masters a couple of years ago and the pimento cheese sandwich and beer were still affordable and one barely notices Berckmans Place along one fairway where the entry fee is around $10,000.

The Bonus:

  Even if you are a loyal reader of MM you likely missed all of The Masters information I have already provided. That is because it is cleverly hidden in this post - The Canadian Masters. Read it to find out what "The Canadian Masters" is, and what the sports commentator Gary McCord said to be banned from Augusta. And, if you look at "The Bonus" you will learn who committed suicide near Ike's Pond on the Augusta course.

The Canadian Masters

    I see that I have not posted in ten days and part of the reason for that is I spent a fair amount of time watching the Masters, which is very American. You probably did as well, even if you are not interested in golf, just as you likely would have watched the Rose Bowl, even though not interested in college football.  It is a fine thing to see roses in January and it is a relief, up here, to see azaleas in April, which give us hope that in a few months something colourful will sprout in Ontario. 

   You are likely to be unaware of the 'Canadian Masters', unless you are thinking about that athletic event for the elderly, but that is not my subject for today. Before I get to the 'Canadian Masters', I will offer some information about the American one, because it is hard to come by. It will also be contrarian in nature, as is usually the case. I always realized that I would not be getting a green jacket as a golfer and knew that if recommended as a member, I would surely be black-balled.  But, what is even worse, I seem to have been rejected by their random lottery system, which allows a chosen few to mingle among the magnolias every April in Augusta. So I now have a dimmer view of this colourful event which we all know is, "an environment of extreme artifice, an elaborate television soundstage, a fantasia of the fifties, a Disneyclub in the Georgia pines." 

   Since you are eager to know more about the Canadian Masters, I will present quickly some Factlets, a term loyal readers will be familiar with, before I get to our main subject for today. 

   * In the old days, the only Black folks allowed on the course were caddies and perhaps a few in the kitchen. Now many of the caddies are millionaires and none of them are black. This year, Lee Elder, the first Black golfer to compete in the tournament, was honoured. There is no indication that the tournament will change its name, although the word 'masters' is now problematic. Although the All Star Baseball game was removed from Atlanta, I don't think there was any attempt to move the Masters from Augusta.

   * Women are now allowed membership and one of them is even a Black Woman - Condoleezza Rice. Back, just a few years ago, when the lack of women became a feminist issue, the members decided to hold the Masters without sponsors, to save them from embarrassment. I don't know if Dr. Rice is allowed to use bikini wax while on the premises (see below.)

   * If you behave badly, the Pinkertons will pitch you out. A spectator was jailed for stealing a cup of bunker sand in 2012 (it is not really sand, but feldspar and the bird sounds are often piped in and some grass tinted green.)
      Back in 1994 when golf commentator, Gary McCord said, "They don't cut the greens here at Augusta, they use bikini wax," he was banned from the broadcast.
      This year, Gary Player's son, Wayne, was banned after he tried to upstage the Elder ceremony by holding up a sleeve of branded golf balls.

   * I recently offered a couple of posts about major landowners and Augusta National is another one of them. If you are attempting to offer a 'Technicolor fantasyland" you need to make the surrounding territory presentable and the National is doing that: 

In the areas immediately surrounding golf's most exclusive club, there are generally only two types of properties: the ones Augusta National has acquired -- and the ones it will acquire....In the last 20 years, the club has spent around $200 million to buy more than 100 pieces of land totaling no fewer than 270 acres, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of property and tax assessor records and interviews with people familiar with the transactions....The extent of the land grab, which vastly exceeds any previously reported estimate, has been obscured by the club's use of limited liability companies. Rather than buying land in its name, the club has instead done so using more than a dozen LLCs, which have no other known purpose. The National is a very private, for-profit operation.

   * The press building on the course is described as the "Taj Mahal of media mollycoddling" and the ink-stained wretches leave it only reluctantly to actually visit the course outside.

   * Another structure somewhere along a fairway is described as an  "Oz within Oz". Known as 'Berckmans Place', the 90,000 square feet contains five restaurants and for an entry fee of around $10,000 you can graze through each of them.  Like most of the things at Augusta National, including the golf course, it is used only a few days throughout the year.

Unlike Any Other

   The tag line you have heard Jim Nantz utter over the years - "A Tradition Unlike Any Other" - could be spoken in French along the St. Lawrence in Quebec where what I am calling, "The Canadian Masters" is held.  The equivalent of Augusta National in Canada is Les Quatre Ventes, in Malbaie, Que.  Just like Augusta it has bridges. The one Georgia.

The one in Quebec.

Just like Augusta National, Les Quatre Ventes is private and only open to the public for a very few days each year. Unlike Augusta, however, the flowers, gardens and birdsongs are all real. The only thing missing is the golf. 

Sources:

   The gardens at Les Quatre Vents were created by Francis H. Cabot and they are regarded as among the most beautiful in the world and if you go to this website you can take a virtual tour. Tours are allowed for small groups over a few days each year, but they may not be offered in 2021 because of the pandemic. 

   This beautiful book is available and it contains almost 400 photographs along with a history of each garden.  I happen to have a copy so don't attempt to buy one. On the Amazon website, one sees this: 

I think at the website offered above you will find a more reasonably priced copy.

   The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation offered a very good documentary - The Gardener - which you may be able to access.  It is about 45 minutes long and is offered on CBC Gem.

For most of the quotes in this post see: "Unlike Any Other," the very good account by Nick Paumgarten in The New Yorker, June 24, 2019 and "Augusta National Makes a Land Grab --- The home of the Masters has expanded its territory by more than 75%, paying massive sums for surrounding properties," Brian Costa, The Wall Street Journal, April 11, 2019. 

Post Script:

   Unfortunately I have to admit that, just as Augusta National is an enclave for very wealthy Americans, Les Quatre Ventes is owned by very wealthy Americans. Francis H. Cabot, who died in 2011, was a Boston Brahmin. His grandmother was given the Malbaie property as a wedding gift in 1902.

The Bonus:

  One of the founders of Augusta National was Clifford Roberts. In the 1970s he had a stroke and made the decision to exit  on his own terms:

"Roberts organized his suicide with the same attention to detail he had applied to the club and the tournament. On his last day, he got a haircut from the club barber and asked a receptionist to buy him a new pair of pajamas in town. He asked a waiter to help him walk from his room to the first tee, where he looked at the trees behind the first green to assure himself that the house that had once stood there - the only result of an early club plan to sell home sites - was indeed gone. He took dinner alone in his room.

Late that night, he called security to report hearing something outside his room, and a watchman came and helped him load the .38- caliber Smith & Wesson pistol he kept there.

His body was found the next morning on the club's par-3 course, near Ike's Pond. There was a single gunshot wound to the temple. He was wearing slippers, the new pajamas (with trousers pulled on over the bottoms) and a raincoat.

Roberts was the second suicide in his family. His mother, Rebecca Scott Key Roberts (a relative of Francis Scott Key, who wrote the national anthem), had killed herself with a shotgun in 1913."

"The Man Who Made the Masters," Alan Tays, Palm Beach Post, April 4, 2001.