LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil was in a celebratory mood on Wednesday, and on the face of it, he had reason to be.
The upstart golf league has had its future in flux for months after it was revealed that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) would pull its backing for LIV at the end of this season. Given that LIV was largely funded by the PIF, and many of its stars are on high-dollar contracts based on that Saudi money, it seemed like the end.
Speaking at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Wednesday, O’Neil went in front of the press to say the show goes on.
“It’s very good news. We’re very fortunate that a lead investor has signed a term sheet approved by our board, which will carry and fund LIV going forward. It’s very good news for us,” O’Neil said. “The players are – I informed them yesterday. This is real-time information. We have good excitement.”
O’Neil said it’s a revolutionary idea for a sports league. Not only will LIV Golf continue to be funded, but players will own the majority stake in the league – a first in major professional sports. It all amounts to a league that will be here for the foreseeable future, rather than the doomsday scenario painted by critics, according to O’Neil.
So, who is the savior lead investor that will keep LIV afloat? “What I can tell you is what I told you,” O’Neil said, adding that the details of the deal are being kept out of the media.
When is the deal going to be officially done and dusted? “We have agreed on a certain time frame, but I’m not going to make that public.”
An official statement released after the news conference had a bit more detail – that written statement says the transaction should be done next month and terms will be finalized in the coming weeks – but not much more.
The league will also shrink in some ways, including moving from 14 events per year to 10 – five team and five individual events that will take place all over the world. There will be greater flexibility for players, who will only be contracted to play those 10 events and can compete in other leagues if they’re eligible or invited. Players will get back their name, image and likeness rights so they can have control over their personal brands.
LIV has long projected optimism about the path ahead and noted that revenue is growing, expecting that the need for huge heaps of Saudi money would eventually go away and the league could stand on its own. Of course, there needed to be a bridge to get to that point and this new lead investor seems like the answer.
But despite O’Neil’s optimism and the grand statements made on Wednesday, the question that hangs over LIV’s future is the same one that has been there all along: Can LIV really survive?
Launched in 2022 with an initial $400 million investment, LIV Golf looked to rival the PGA Tour by featuring $250 million in prize purses, initially threatening to shake the foundations of the sport. The league had been primarily funded by PIF, the sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman – the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and the man who a US intelligence report named as responsible for approving the operation that led to the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Bin Salman has denied involvement in Khashoggi’s murder.
The Saudi Arabian government has been dealing with the economic fallout from the war between the US and Iran, which launched late in February, and the subsequent effects on the oil markets that are so lucrative to the Saudi government.
Saudi energy infrastructure has been the target of Iranian attacks, and the uncertainty over the status of the Strait of Hormuz has had a dramatic effect on the movement – and price – of oil drilled in the Middle East. That led the PIF to reassess its investments in light of the war and the effect it is having on the Saudi economy.
Even before the war began, there were questions over the long-term viability of the league. Over the last year or so, the league saw some high-profile defections back to the PGA Tour, the very establishment that LIV was meant to surpass.
With the news that the PIF was pulling its funding, most of the questions to LIV golfers at major championships this year have been about whether they are considering leaving LIV for the PGA (unless that golfer is Bryson DeChambeau, who has had a whole host of other questions to answer at the last few majors). There was also the postponement of the event in New Orleans, aiming for a new fall date.
The announcement of a new investor without any details about who that investor is will also not exactly inspire confidence. It’s hard to promise stability and longevity with such basic details purposely being left out.
Add onto that uncertainty about the rest of this year’s campaign and whether the season-ending team championship in Michigan will happen and the picture only gets murkier. LIV is set to end this year with the team championship in suburban Detroit at the end of the month, but that event has been reported to be in danger of being canceled.
“This is a very fluid situation. We are all working tirelessly to do everything we can to deliver the events of this season. Some of the stuff is completely in our control. Some of the stuff is not. We are working to deliver the best we can,” O’Neil said when asked about the event. “We just don’t have any update or certainty as we are now.”
It’s understandable that a leader in a position such as O’Neil would be aching to get some good news out about his organization after such a difficult year. But as so often happens with LIV, attempts at answers only seem to beget more questions.
