The Cup Is Gold At The Masters

Jon Show is on loan to Sporting News from our sister publication, SportsBusiness Journal. He's in Augusta for The Masters and will be writing about his experiences in this space daily during the tournament. Be sure to check out his columns as well.

To the right is the cup that fans typically get when they buy drinks at the Masters. I believe the sports industry calls them "collectors cups," which is sports marketing slang for "fancy trash."

These cups are gold to people here. I know because I have one from the 2000 Masters and I don't let visitors to my home drink out of it. Sometimes I let my wife use it, but only after explaining its importance. She usually loses interest halfway through and grabs another cup.

I consider my cup important because I got it during my first and only trip, and I wasn't sure if I'd ever go again. However, people here collect these things like a squirrel gathers nuts. I saw one woman standing next to a trash can retrieving people's cups. One accidentally dropped out of a kid's cargo shorts pocket and a man waited until he passed before picking it up and claiming it as his own. I saw a man trash a cup, and someone 20 feet away yell "CUP" to one of her friends, who promptly ran to the bag and picked out the cup.

Here's my problem. For $1 you can buy a cup, with a soft drink. For $2 you can even get one with beer. Someone is actually auctioning their cup off on eBay right now.

Augusta National: Where our trash is your gold.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.