Ripper GC general manager Nick Adams, Cam Smith and Ripper players have openly addressed reports Saudi Arabian backers could pull funding from the breakaway league.<\/p>\n
“We’re quite used to, especially Cam and Leish [Marc Leishman], we’re used to a lot of sort of catastrophising around LIV’s future that is never really led by us,” Adams told AAP on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
“Every six months, there’s something that comes up, like it’s all going to end, or it’s over tomorrow, or a merger with the PGA.<\/p>\n
“So to be honest, it’s not something that we’re foreign to. We have been instructed by leadership that it’s all business as usual and we’re planning ahead to 2027.”<\/p>\n
Adams and golfers Smith, Leishman, Lucas Herbert and Elvis Smylie met in Mexico City two weeks ago when rumours surfaced querying the league’s future.<\/p>\n
“We sat down as a group and just went through: ‘Well, this is factual, and this is not, and this is where we stand and we’re moving ahead’,” Adams said.<\/p>\n
“We addressed it as a group; everyone was satisfied with what we discussed and then we moved forward … that is as much as it was.<\/p>\n
“To be honest, our guys are Australian. Unless it’s really, really good oil and they know it to be a fact, they just keep going and moving and business as usual.”<\/p>\n
Reports suggest Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) could withdraw funding of a league which Forbes reported in January has posted cumulative losses of more than $1.4 billion since its 2021 founding.<\/p>\n
“As we apply to 2027, it hasn’t affected the market sentiment around the team, which has been fantastic,” Adams said.<\/p>\n
“Nor can I really see it affecting the sentiment around the league.<\/p>\n
“The PIF hasn’t come out and made a statement to say that they’re not funding the league, so we’re carrying on as is.”<\/p>\n
Adams said discussions were ongoing, with private buyers interested in a stake of Ripper GC.<\/p>\n
“What this has always been set up to do, is start to sell percentages of the teams to outside investors,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Now that is not a new thing; that was always the vision when it began, and we will continue on that process.<\/p>\n
“We have interested parties that are wanting to get involved with all 13 teams across the league and Ripper is no different to that.<\/p>\n
“So we will continue to have those conversations as they come up.”<\/p>\n
Figures of $1 billion have been bandied about for LIV’s 13 franchises,<\/p>\n
“If we had this conversation 15 years ago and you told me that an IPL team would sell for $1.4 billion, what do you think, would you have said yes?” Adams said.<\/p>\n
According to LIV Golf figures, revenue is up 100 per cent from 2024\/25; sponsorship up 40 per cent year-on-year.<\/p>\n
And with more than 100,000 fans attending the inaugural event in South Africa this year, the league – which on Tuesday postponed a tournament in New Orleans scheduled for June – was pacing $100 million ahead of last year’s revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ripper GC general manager Nick Adams, Cam Smith and Ripper players have openly addressed reports Saudi Arabian backers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-637993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}