£280million Ryder Cup at ‘Augusta of Ireland’ to be nation’s most expensive sporting event ever

It is now exactly one year until the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in County Limerick.

Which means the countdown officially begins for the most expensive sporting event in Irish history.

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2026 has been a memorable year for the Emerald Isle as Katie Taylor became the first individual female athlete to sell out Croke Park with her farewell fight earlier this month.

The iconic national stadium in Dublin also witnessed Mayo's first All-Ireland victory in 75 years, ending one of the most famous droughts in all of sport.

Team Europe captain Luke Donald is eyeing up his own little slice of sporting history when he heads to Ireland next year.

The Englishman can become the first captain in the Ryder Cup's 100-year history to win three consecutive matches outright.

But one thing is already certain - no sporting event in Ireland has ever come close to the 2027 Ryder Cup in terms of financial scale.

And we are not just talking about the £400 tickets.

How much has it cost to stage the Ryder Cup at Adare Manor?

Set against a 19th-century Neo-Gothic mansion, Adare Manor oozes a sense of luxury and grandeur.

Speaking about the resort earlier this week after a Ryder Cup scouting mission with Team Europe, Jon Rahm said: “Any time I'm asked to go to Adare Manor, I'm going to go happily and willingly.

"It's one of the best hotel golf course experiences there is in the world. It was a lot of fun."

Golf-loving Irish billionaire J.P. McManus, who is close friends with Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, bought the property in 2015 with the explicit intent of staging the Ryder Cup.

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He paid £24m for it and spent more than £74m turning it into a world-class venue.

This included building a new wing, adding a 42-person cinema, creating a Michelin-starred dining setup, and completely rebuilding the golf course.

More than £370,000 was spent solely on installing SubAir systems- which suck moisture from underground to protect the grounds from wet weather - making it rather invaluable in Ireland of all places.

After 22 months of redevelopment with the help of course architect Tom Fazio, Adare Manor reopened its doors in 2017 and immediately drew comparisons to Augusta National for its pristine and immaculate condition.

It commands the most expensive green fee in Ireland, setting golfers back roughly £400, plus a mandatory £90 caddie fee.

A hotel room at the resort can cost you anywhere between £680 and £3,600 per night.

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But with regards to the Ryder Cup, around £100m was spent on Adare Manor privately before it even secured the 2027 event.

Once it was named as the host venue in 2017, Ireland committed around £180m of public money to deliver the event, making it probably the biggest-ever logistical undertaking for a single sporting event in the country.

This is more than double what it cost to host the Ryder Cup at the K Club in Kildare in 2006.

With direct operations and licensing costing around £50m, a further £140m has been spent on infrastructure alone, with more than 250,000 people expected to attend over the course of the week.

The biggest outlay by far has been the fast-tracked production of a new road designed to bypass the village of Adare and prevent bottle-necking during the tournament.

This is thought to cost around £128m and remains on a tight schedule to be completed within the next 12 months.

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A temporary train station has also been built next to Adare Manor to help funnel fans in and out.

Reports claim McManus asked for another £25m of funding last year, with some critics questioning the level of public funding for an event taking place on private land.

But as we enter the final year of preparation for a match more than a decade in the making, one thing is clear - the modern scale of the Ryder Cup has never been so enormous.

Once public and private money is combined, we're talking about £280m just to make hosting possible.