LIV Golf CEO says league has financial commitment to finish season
Amid questions on the way forward for LIV Golf, CEO Scott O’Neil informed TNT Sports on Thursday that the league has a financial commitment to finish the 2026 season.
On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which has invested greater than $5 billion into LIV Golf since its first event in June 2022, was on the verge of chopping funding.
LIV Golf has eight remaining tournaments this season, together with 5 within the United States.
“The reality is you’re funded through the season and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going,” O’Neil stated throughout Thursday’s broadcast of the opening spherical in Mexico City. “But that’s not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of man.”
O’Neil, who on Wednesday despatched a memo to employees saying the 2026 season would continue at “full throttle,” on Thursday he stated he had met with 50 folks on the Masters and rolled out a plan that “might surprise people.”
LIV Golf has stated a few of its metrics, resembling ticket gross sales and crew sponsorships, have elevated, and O’Neil is projecting 10 of the 13 groups and 4 of the 14 occasions will probably be worthwhile.
However, there’s a substantial value concerned with prize funds ($30 million for every event) and operations.
“Given the momentum of this business, we’re really excited about where we are and the position where we are,” O’Neil stated. “…This notion of bringing teams to market, I had two calls this morning. This notion of, ‘Do you have to raise money?’ Probably. This is business. But if we keep the trajectory going the way we are and the revenue growth going, this is going to be a really good business for a really long time.”
Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois has requested LIV Golf for a solution by Monday on whether or not its scheduled event at Bayou Oaks at City Park in New Orleans on June 25-28 will go on as scheduled, Nola.com reported Friday.
Golfer Jon Rahm He stated he had no hassle transferring ahead contained in the ropes amid the uncertainty.
“For me, it didn’t make sense to think about it or waste time thinking about [it],” Rahm stated Thursday. “Since everything happened so suddenly and so quickly, I wasn’t very worried about it because normally, before the rumors start, we already know something — there’s always someone within the league who knows something. It happened so fast that I really didn’t worry about it.”
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and PIF chairman Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday authorized a five-year strategic plan for the sovereign wealth fund that targeted on home initiatives.
The PIF bought a 70% stake in Saudi Pro League facet Al Hilal on Thursday to Kingdom Holding Company, a agency operated by billionaire businessman and member of the Saudi royal household Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal.
Meanwhile, LIV Golf and the PIF had been listed as defendants in a lawsuit filed by World Golf Group and the Premier Golf League, which initially pursued having golfers competing on four-man groups in 54-hole occasions with $20 million purses.
Details of the lawsuit, which was filed in Commercial Court in London on Thursday, weren’t instantly recognized, and the World Golf League’s attorneys did not instantly reply to a request for remark from ESPN.
The Premier Golf League recruited PGA Tour stars resembling Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson beginning in 2020. It reportedly promised $30 million every up entrance to the PGA Tour stars with possession stake of their groups.
The league, which was created by British-based World Golf Group, wished to stage 18 worldwide tournaments that includes 48 golfers competing for $20 million purses. The winner was going to obtain $4 million.
The Premier Golf League tried to accomplice with the DP World Tour within the fall of 2020 with guarantees of taking the European circuit to “another level.” In response, the PGA Tour fashioned a strategic alliance with the DP World Tour.
With the assistance of former world No. 1 golfer Greg Norman, LIV Golf was in a position to lure away a number of prime PGA Tour stars, together with Mickelson, Koepka and Johnson, with assured contracts value greater than $100 million.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
