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Augusta National’s Quietest Secret
April 10, 2025 | Edition #09
Hey there!
March Madness is over—and the TV ratings madness is just beginning. Nielsen’s early ratings merit deeper analysis, and we’re already on it. And then, it's Masters week, too. At Augusta National, where golf royalty meets corporate titans, million-dollar deals are already being laid. Likely under that giant tree—you know, the one.
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Today’s TLDR:
🏀 NCAA arrives at post-Caitlin Clark era. And delivers big numbers.
🌳 Why billionaires and business tycoons love this Augusta National tree
📖 The stories shaping the industry (and the lessons we learned this week)
Let’s dive in. 🚀
3,465 | That’s what loyalty looks like. A single user read 3,465 pieces (nearly 72%) of all EssentiallySports' college basketball content. |
The Florida Gators and UConn Huskies were not the only winners of the NCAA Championship Sunday. Despite an upset win and a blowout, the TV ratings delivered for both the matches. 2025 marked a standout year for men’s basketball ratings.
Gator’s victory over Houston was watched by an average of 18.1 million viewers on CBS, the third-most watched basketball game in five years.
The Men’s Final Four is the highest (15.3M) in eight years, with a 19% Y-O-Y increase.
The Florida-Auburn game was the most-watched early final four game (14.6 M) since 2017, recording a 27% Y-O-Y increase.
Future stars like Cooper Flagg and Johni Broome helped power the Final Four’s ratings boom. On the other hand, on the women’s side, Caitlin Clark’s impact was visible even more now that she is not there anymore.
Women’s Hoops witnessed a dip but offered enough positive signs
The Final Four average viewership on the women’s side — 3.9M – is a 64% drop over the last year. The absence of Caitlin Clark and a UConn blowout over UCLA dragged viewership down. Still, it’s far from a downturn.
The 3.9M Final Four average viewership is the third-highest in NCAA history.
8.5M average viewership for the final match was almost double that of the 2022 iteration (4.85M), the last time South Carolina and UConn faced off.
After the two historic Caitlin Clark-inspired seasons, this is the only time a women’s title game crossed the 6M mark.
A comparison with college football is more revealing.
The UConn-South Carolina match drew the same number of eyeballs as the Georgia-Georgia Tech face-off last November on ABC. Notably, more people watched the women’s final than the SMU-Penn State CFP first-round game (6.6M) on TNT/TBS/truTV, as Sports Business Journal reported. In fact, college athletes continue to draw massive eyeballs as revealed by EssentiallySports’ page traffic:
So, there is no room for skepticism about college basketball’s potential. In the post-Clark era, brands must double down on their investment in college basketball instead of retracing their footsteps.
What This Means for the Business?
If 2024 was the time when college athletes said, ‘Step aside, guys, my time has come,’ 2025 is the year when they are boldly proclaiming, ‘We are here to stay.’ And they indeed are, thanks to NIL.
It has provided brands the opportunity to nurture talents from a young age. Partnering with college athletes–be it male or female–allows brands to tap into the deep relationship they share with the alumni as well. Brands can gain rich dividends as the stats below show:
College athletes generated 1.2x, 2x, and 10x more engagement than influencers on Instagram, TikTok, and X, respectively, according to a study.
In fact, the average engagement on an athlete’s post is 5.6%, more than double that of a typical influencer (2.4%).
Over 50,000 NIL-eligible athletes present brands an opportunity for hyper-localized marketing.
On the other hand, the NCAA’s open transfer policy has also paid off.
For the Gators, Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin, Will Richard, and Reuben Chinyelu all joined the team at various points in time on transfer.
Richard led the Gators, scoring 18 points, whereas Clayton Jr. raked in 11 points.
L.J. Cryer of Houston also joined the team on a transfer, picking up 19 points with two assists and a steal in the final match.
‘Cinderella’ runs are dead in NCAA basketball, and this year’s men’s Final Four proved it. With the transfer portal and NIL, top programs now have the resources to stack rosters with elite, experienced talent, creating a new era where consistency beats chaos. The result? A Final Four made up entirely of No. 1 seeds. The matchups were fierce, the margins thin, and the star power undeniable.
While the magic of a 12-seed shocking the world might be gone, what’s replaced it is a tournament where the best of the best clash in heavyweight battles, fueled by talent, money, and mobility. Cinderella had a good run, but this new era is about big programs, big moments, and even bigger stakes.
The transfer portal also delivered a ratings boom. The arena of college athletics surely doesn’t lack any talent. NCAA’s primary task is to promote the stars. Now that Caitlin Clark is gone, how the NCAA markets its new batch of celebrity athletes will decide if college tournaments will continue in the same trajectory or not.
Men Versus Women. Which NCAA Championship Game Did You Enjoy the Most? |
In case you haven’t guessed it already, we are talking about the legendary Oak Tree outside Augusta National’s clubhouse. You know, the one where handshakes pave the way for contracts, and million-dollar ideas are exchanged with a broad smile. Under which deals, in some cases, get done in less than three minutes.
It’s the Davos in the shades.
The biggest powerbrokers descend on Augusta in April
Augusta National members, when they are on their turf, mostly sit in C-suite positions at Fortune 500 companies. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, William Harris Jr., John Maree, Gregory Johnson, and the like are a few of Augusta’s members.
It’s no surprise that the relatively quiet Augusta Regional Airport turns into ‘organized chaos’ for the Masters week. The 2024 Masters airline data paints a clear picture:
📈 The number of takeoffs and landings went up from 62 per day to almost 300. Between Sunday and Wednesday, 900 flights landed in Augusta.
✈️ A whopping 1500 private jets landed at Augusta. One runaway of the regional airport remains to be blocked for private jet parking.
🚀 Delta Air Lines almost doubled its seat capacity in flights to Augusta, along with introducing a bunch of new flights.
In fact, EssentiallySports’ traffic spikes during Masters week confirm its magnetic pull, despite golf being a niche sport.
However, Augusta shuns all public displays of corporate associations. You won’t see any banners or logos glittering around the course like you would in a regular tournament. Indeed, there are only four champion partners and three official tournament partners. And, yet, Masters still remains the goldmine for brands.
Augusta National is where businesses kickstart long-term partnerships
Interestingly, Augusta will never flaunt the exact number of deals facilitated under the canopy of its oldest member. Neither will brands make the cardinal mistake of leaking it – if ANGC abhors anything, it’s undue attention. However, instances of leveraging the Masters for limelight, though rare, are not unprecedented.
2018: Bud Light seized the opportunity of a reported ban on the phrase ‘Dilly Dilly’ at Augusta to market their product during the Masters.
2020: Bridgestone renewed its partnership with Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau right before the Covid-delayed Masters.
2025: Tiger Woods announced his company TGR will design a par-3, nine-hole layout at Augusta Municipal Golf Course
Fred Ridley, the ANGC chairman, didn’t reveal the financial details, but a par-3 course is usually a $2-$5M project. It won’t be surprising if the first talk of this started at last year’s Masters. Under the very same Oak Tree. The timing of the tournament, in April, serves as the ideal launching pad as well.
✅ It’s the start of a new financial quarter, offering an added push for marketing.
✅ Companies are more accommodating of new projects with a comparatively higher budget.
✅ April is also when many outdoor industries come out of the winter hibernation and start bustling.
“It has been happening for 75 years. If you arrange a meeting, it will be at the tree and I think that works,” Ken Schofield, a former executive director of the European Tour, was quoted by The Guardian.
They can only hint (a wink or a quickly-concealed smile) at the scale of the deals. Back in 2011, Guy Kinnings, now the CEO of the DP World Tour, said the money could rack up to a ‘very healthy sum’.
So, if the Masters is a tradition unlike any other, the Oak Tree is its silent dealmaker — rooted in history and quietly shaping the future of the sport. It’s reminiscent of the Abraham Lincoln era – by moderate estimates, it’s been there since the 1850s–yet bears witness to some of the biggest deals in modern-day sports. Expect nothing different this week.
March Madness is the NCAA's golden goose, earning them billions of dollars each year through media deals and endorsements. Over the last few years, the women's game has been growing in popularity, attempting to outdo their male counterparts, and it's definitely working in their favor! With increased viewership, sales, and popularity, the NCAA has decided to give back to the women's game through a performance fund and unit-based system. Each unit is worth $113,000, paling in comparison to the men's units, which are $340,000 each! It's still a step in the right direction, but there are some genuine concerns about the $15 million total payout. Is the athletic association working towards a genuine sense of equity, or is the gesture placative in nature?
College Football programs are intrinsically linked to how the masses perceive the institutions they represent. It's a reciprocal relationship where success on the field raises the tide. In an attempt to raise the overall stature of its university, Northwestern is splurging on a new stadium. This project to rebuild their home, Ryan Field, is setting them back a gaudy $850 million. Making it the most expensive stadium in the sport. There are tangible reasons why Northwestern has opted to take this farsighted gamble. Exploring this raises an overarching question about whether this is them being trailblazers for the future of the sport.
Major League Pickleball has landed a major title sponsor in DoorDash, marking the league’s biggest deal yet. Now known as MLP presented by DoorDash, the three-year agreement includes full rebranding and fan perks for DashPass members. The announcement featured Dude Perfect and top MLP players in a viral campaign. 19.8 million Americans played pickleball in 2024. That’s a 45.8% increase from the previous year. And globally, pickleball’s market is booming—set to jump from $1.9 billion in 2023 to $7.9 billion by 2033. DoorDash joins other major leagues like the NBA and MLS in its sports marketing push. As part of the deal, the 2025 MLP Finals in NYC will be presented by DoorDash, signaling even bigger things ahead.
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