LIV Golf’s chief executive, Scott O’Neil, says unnamed “prominent” Australians are flagging interest in investing when Saudi Arabia ends its funding.<\/p>\n
O’Neil and LIV hierarchy are seeking about $US300 million ($A425 million) investment for the league to continue beyond this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We are very tapped in and wired in to the Australian business community and those who might be interested,” O’Neil told AAP on Friday.<\/p>\n
“Yes, we’re having some ongoing dialogue with some prominent Australians.”<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will stop funding LIV Golf at the end of the season.<\/p>\n
Some reports suggest the funding could soon stop, casting doubt on whether LIV’s four remaining tournaments this year will proceed.<\/p>\n
Asked if he was confident the season would be completed, O’Neil replied: “I don’t have a crystal ball, unfortunately.<\/p>\n
“But I can tell you this: the PIF has been a really strong supporter; they have always been good on their word, and they have pledged publicly that they will support us through the season.<\/p>\n
“So that is our plan … they [PIF] have been pretty clear that we are funded through the season.”<\/p>\n
Smith, captain of the all-Australian Ripper GC team, was at the forefront of players involved in finding potential investors.<\/p>\n
“He has been quite public and quite up-front about his support and the support of his team-mates for this next version of LIV; this LIV 2.0 version,” O’Neil said.<\/p>\n
“He is a force to be reckoned with on the tour, and on the road he’s so respected by the players at LIV.<\/p>\n
“He commands impact and influence on those around him and he has been a true champion for … securing the investment.”<\/p>\n
O’Neil said in addition to potential Australian investors, discussions were continuing with a range of backers in other countries.<\/p>\n
“Some of the private equity firms we’re meeting with are interested in taking the whole $US300 million,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We have spoken to some professional sports team owners; they seem to be talking in the $US25 million to $US50 million range.<\/p>\n
‘And some combination of those two might happen as well.<\/p>\n
“This is a business and a business plan that will reset with quite a bit of discipline, that will be sustainable and profitable business in three short years, so we’re very excited about what we’re building.”<\/p>\n
Adelaide, the host of four LIV events, has become the flagship tournament for the league, with O’Neil using its success as a selling point for investors.<\/p>\n
“I often show videos of Australia because until you see it, it’s hard to believe and imagine that golf could be this much fun,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I talk about the economic impact [for South Australia].<\/p>\n
“There is nothing I have seen like the fans in Australia at a LIV event, so it’s a very, very special place and it plays a very prominent role in talking to investors.<\/p>\n
“In fact, because we play on five continents, our dream scenario is to have investment from each of the five continents.<\/p>\n
“So nothing would make me more happy, more proud of what we do and how we do it, than to have one of our investors come from Australia.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIV Golf’s chief executive, Scott O’Neil, says unnamed “prominent” Australians are flagging interest in investing when Saudi Arabia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-732285","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\/732285","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=732285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}