NEW YORK (AP) — Metropolitan Opera season attendance dropped slightly following the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown that coincided with a decrease in tourists to New York.
The Met sold 72% of capacity, matching 2023-24 and down from its 75% projection.
“We were on track to continue to improve,” Met general manager Peter Gelb said Friday. “We were disappointed by the sales in the last two months of the season — our projections were much higher and I attribute the fact that we didn’t achieve our sales goals to a significant drop in tourism."
New York City Tourism & Conventions last month reduced its 2025 international visitor projection by 17%, the Met said.
International buyers accounted for 11% of sales, down from the Met's projection of 16% and from about 20% before the coronavirus pandemic.
“It's unfortunate, but this is the times in which we live,” Gelb said.
The Met said factoring ticket discounts, it realized 60% of potential income, down from 64% in 2023-24 but up from 57% in 2022–23.
“We were able to sell an equal amount of tickets the last year, but there were more discounted tickets,” Gelb said. “This really was the result of the last two months of the season.”
There were 76,000 new ticket buyers, a drop from 85,000 in 2023-24, and the average age of single ticket buyers was 44, the same as in the previous season and a drop from 50 before the pandemic. Subscriptions accounted for just 7% of ticket sales, down from 12-15% before the pandemic,
Gelb said economic uncertainty impacted sales for next season.
“The stock market jumping up and down made people feel insecure,” he said. “In one week we saw an enormous decline in our advance for next season. Then it picked up again.”
Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin earned $2,045,038 in the year end last July 31, up from $1,307,583, in the previous fiscal year, according to the company’s tax return released Friday. Gelb earned $1,395,216, roughly the same as his $1,379,032 in 2022-23,and he also accrued $798,205 listed as retirement or deferred compensation.
Assets declined by about $40 million to $467 million, primarily because of an endowment draw following the pandemic.
Among individual productions last season, the highest percentage of tickets sold were for the English-language version of Mozart's “The Magic Flute” and a new staging of Verdi's “Aida,” both at 82%, followed by the company premiere of Jake Heggie's “Moby-Dick” at 81%
Other new productions included Strauss' “Salome” (74%), John Adams' “Antony and Cleopatra” (65%), Osvaldo Golijov's “Ainadamar” (61%) and Jeanine Tesori’s “Grounded” (50%).
The best-selling revivals were Puccini's “Tosca” (78%), Tchaikovsky's “Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades)” and Puccini's La Bohème (77% each), Beethoven's “Fidelio” and Rossini's “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” (76% each) and Mozart's “Le Nozze di Figaro” (71%).
Lagging were Strauss' “Die Frau ohne Schatten” (68%0, Verdi's “Rigoletto” (64%), Offenbach's “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” and the German-language version of Mozart's “Die Zauberflöte” (62% each) and Verdi's “Il Trovatore” (59%).
FILE - People appear in Josie Robertson Plaza in front of The Metropolitan Opera house at Lincoln Center in New York on March 12, 2020. . (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (AP) — Golf's oldest championship returns to one of the newer links courses. New is relative in this case, because Royal Portrush was founded 137 years ago. But this is only its third time hosting the British Open, and the Northern Ireland links is certain to be high on the rotation.
The R&A is expecting 278,000 spectators for the week at the British Open, which would be the second-largest crowd in the 165-year history of the championship.
Irish eyes will be on Rory McIlroy, the Masters champion and latest to win the career Grand Slam. He is embracing the expectation, unlike in 2019 when McIlroy was so emotional at the reception that he hit his first shot out of bounds and shot 79.
This is the final major of the year, and the most unusual of the four majors because of links golf, where funny bounces and pot bunkers and fickle weather can determine the winner.
Here's what you need to know going into the British Open:
The first round begins Thursday and players in groups of three all start on the first hole. Daylight is not an issue at the British Open because it doesn't get dark until about 10:30 p.m. The last group won't even tee off until a little after 4 p.m.
There is wall-to-wall coverage, along with a five-hour time difference between Northern Ireland and the East Coast of the U.S. It will start at 1:30 a.m. EDT on the Peacock streaming service, and then USA Network picks up coverage from 4 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
If you're living on the West Coast, the British Open will come on just before bedtime. For golf fans in Hawaii, it will start right after sunset on Waikiki.
The Open concludes at 3 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday, both on NBC.
Scottie Scheffler has been the favorite at every major this year, and the British Open is no exception. BetMGM Sportsbook lists Scheffler at +550, slightly ahead of home favorite Rory McIlroy at +700. They are Nos. 1 and 2 in the world.
Jon Rahm is next at +1100, followed by defending champion Xander Schauffele (+2000) and Tommy Fleetwood of England (+2200). Bryson DeChambeau is listed at +2500.
The British Open is the only major where Scheffler has not had a serious chance at winning on the back nine on Sunday. But he hasn't finished out of the top 10 since late March.
Padraig Harrington, a two-time British Open winner from Ireland, will hit the first tee shot at 6:35 a.m. local time (0135 EDT) on Thursday.
Scottie Scheffler goes out at 10:09 a.m. in the same group as Shane Lowry, the winner at Royal Portrush in 2019, and Rory McIlroy is among the later starters at 3:10 p.m.
Starting times are more important than at any other major because the British Open features 15 hours of golf in the opening rounds, and there's never any telling what the weather will do.
Players look at their starting times. And then they check the weather. There have been times when someone gets the worst of the weather on Thursday and Friday. Lowry got the best of the weather when he won six years ago.
Mixed. That's the term often used in these parts to indicate a little bit of everything, and sometimes that can be in one day.
Practice on Monday temporarily was suspended because of thunderstorms. Rain was in the forecast for parts of Tuesday and Wednesday, and there's a chance of showers pretty much every day the rest of the week. There will be sunshine. There will be wind. This is normal.
The winner gets a silver claret jug, the oldest trophy in golf. As part of a new tradition, Xander Schauffele had to return the jug to the R&A on Monday in a short ceremony. Then he has four days to win it back.
The winner also gets introduced as the “champion golfer of the year,” another tradition. He also will get a five-year exemption to the other three majors, an exemption into the British Open until age 55 (past winners could play until 60) and a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour.
Scottie Scheffler is No. 1 in the world and usually in contention no matter how he is playing. But this is the British Open, and this is Northern Ireland, so this week starts with Rory McIlroy. There is pressure to perform, but he also is relieved of the burden from having not won a major in 11 years. He took care of that by winning the Masters and bringing home that green jacket.
If Scheffler were to win, he would go to the U.S. Open next year for a chance at the Grand Slam.
Schauffele is trying to become the first repeat winner since Padraig Harrington in 2007 and 2008. But the Californian was slowed by a rib injury early in the year and still hasn't won yet.
British hopes lies with the likes of Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton, while Jon Rahm of Spain can also get within one leg of the Grand Slam with a British Open title.
Royal Portrush is in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. The official title is The Open Championship or simply The Open. The Associated Press, along with several U.S. newspapers, have referred it to as the British Open for more than 100 years to distinguish it from other national opens like the U.S. Open and Australian Open.
The R&A once referred to it as the “British Open” in official films in the 1950s.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Xander Schauffele of the United States, left, winner of the 2024 British Open, hands back the Claret Jug trophy to the R&A CEO Mark Darbon ahead of the 2025 British Open golf championship at the Royal Portrush Golf Club, Northern Ireland, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Fransisco Seco)
Spectators take cover under an umbrellas as play is suspended due to a thunderstorm waring during a practice round for the 2025 British Open golf championship at the Royal Portrush Golf Club, Northern Ireland, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland listens to a question from the media at a press conference ahead of the 2025 British Open golf championship at the Royal Portrush Golf Club, Northern Ireland, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
