Open Golf Championship.. Cost

[sJoe]

Went up to Lytham for The Open, had a great time..went to the practice day Wed..played golf with family Thur/Fri/Sat. back to The Open for Sunday.atmosphere was fantastic..but will I go again??????????
Wed. entrance fee £40
car park £15
programme £7
start sheet £2
Sun. entrance fee £70
car park £15
start sheet £2
Total.................. £151.00
just imagine if I'd gone Thur/Fri/Sat too an extra £85 per day...
I think the R&A's pricing needs to be looked at.

 

[GB72]

To be fair to the R&A that pricing is about the same as any other sporting event. To watch rugby at Twickenham you are looking at £60.00 for the cheapest seat and that is only for a couple of hours sport. I am sure that Wembley is at least that much. Parking is about the same around major sporting venues, at least a tenner to get parked up around Twickenham. Open prices actually seem almost reasonable in comparision.

 

[Alex1975]

Im not sure £151 is too much for two days of fun. I think an extra £2 for a start sheet is a bit much though...

 

[jeardley]

its gone up 100% in 6 years.... thats why we didnt go this year

 

[Hobbit]

If you go for the full week, and get your tickets early, you can save a fortune - still a lot of pennies tho'.

 

[brendy]

It is expensive but compare it to Formula 1 etc. It isn't so bad, charging for start sheets when you buy a programme though, no need.

 

[3offTheTee]

It would have been cheaper if you had bought the tickets earlier as I think they were £60 and Car parking was cheaper. Additionally there was a weekly ticket.

Sure there are some rip offs from what you said but for 12 hours plus entertainment it equates to around £5 per hour which is not bad in this day and age!

 

[Davey S2]

Against £100 to watch Arsenal for 90 mins £70 for the full final day seems like pretty good value to me.

 

[Scottjd1]

To the OP what cost would you think is reasonable?

 

[OldMate]

Sure there are some rip offs from what you said but for 12 hours plus entertainment it equates to around £5 per hour which is not bad in this day and age!

Agree with this. Also there is the added extra of getting to walk around one of the better golf courses in the world (which to me is worth a bit of money, compared to sitting on a plastic seat in football stadiums which all more or less look the same). As long as kids can go free to keep up the future of golf I don't mind the current prices.

 

[Shiny]

I am going to the seniors tour next month. £5 per day or £10 for all 3 days at Woburn - result.

 

[beggsy]

I saw the price of food now that was scandalous

 

[MegaSteve]

I saw the price of food now that was scandalous

Peter Alliss raised this point during commentary...

 

[tarmac]

thing is you go to rugby or footie and you get 80 or 90 mins action right in front of your eyes tennis etc.to even f1 you no theres gonna be a car along shortly.you go to the golf find a spot and wait for something to happen,after 20mins you decide to move and as you walk along the side of a fairway you spot a golfer coming.sure as heck his balls at the other side of the fairway an its gonna take another 10mins before he hits a shot..so out of 12 hours at the course how much entertainment do you actualy get.the open...watch it on telly

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

To be fair to the R&A that pricing is about the same as any other sporting event. To watch rugby at Twickenham you are looking at £60.00 for the cheapest seat and that is only for a couple of hours sport. I am sure that Wembley is at least that much. Parking is about the same around major sporting venues, at least a tenner to get parked up around Twickenham. Open prices actually seem almost reasonable in comparision.

Rather than make cost comparisons - as this is what is always done when trying to justify the (unreasonable) cost of something - think about absolute costs. So £60 /day - fine if you can afford to pay the same or more to go to a football, rugby or cricket test match - but what if you can't. Unemployed under 25s get £56.25 a week JSA - that is supposed to be enough to live off for a week. Viewed in that light £60 seems one h**l of a lot of money - and you aren't going to get too many folk on JSA paying to watch the golf. With so many unemployed does this not make watching the Open unaffordable to very many and make it seem elitest? So for the unemployed on JSA one 7th of their weekly allowance to get in? That would be £8 - and that is affordable.

I'm not on JSA but I would struggle to justify the cost of a day at the Open. Sad but true.

 

[pbrown7582]

If you compare it to my visit to wembley last year for the European cup final which was £250 a go for 90 minutes it's cheap. And we had to pay for our 2 year old!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

If you compare it to my visit to wembley last year for the European cup final which was £250 a go for 90 minutes it's cheap. And we had to pay for our 2 year old!

It's relatively cheaper - it's not cheap. If you get £56 a week JSA it's very expensive.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

I am amazed that the charge for parking your car at English Opens.
That's cheating.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I think it's still good value for one of the premier sporting events in the calendar. Personally I prefer to go practice days where the crowds are a little smaller and you can go to the range and watch the pros

 

[slimbomber]

Like most places the prices can appear to be extortionate but if you go well prepared you can save a bit here and there, I went to the practice day on Wednesday, £30 cus I booked before end of May, had a night in a Travelodge at £10 as I booked in December well in advance, then took a fair bit to eat to ward off the necessity of buying from concession stands.

With that I believe £30 for over 12 hours entertainment and full on golf experience at its best is not that high a price, you know full well the food is going to be highly priced (a sausage baguette at £5.60 is rediculous IMO), a hat is a nice momento but cost £20 along with a few other trinkets, the big rip off is £15 to park a car in a wet field and a 5min bus ride!