Financially speaking, the 2013 Open Championship was a bust. The event managed to attract only 142,036 spectators, nowhere close to the number (170,000) that the Royal & Ancient was expecting. To add insult to injury, this year’s attendance was down by 11.5 percent from the number posted by the Open in 2002, the last time it was played at Muirfield.
The R&A is wearing a brave face, claiming that it’s “pleased with this attendance.” It blames the poor turnout on unexpectedly good weather (“We believe the extremely warm weather put off some of our pay-at-the-gate customers”) and competition from television coverage of cricket and bicycling events.
