Alexis Ohanian was in the middle of celebrating his golf team’s TGL championship Tuesday night when he broke a piece of news: Earlier that day, he said, he’d purchased the second franchise in TGL’s upcoming women’s league.
It’s the latest in a slew of M&A in the upstart golf league, which just finished its second men’s season. In the past few months, according to people familiar with the details, multiple men’s teams have sold minority stakes for more than $90 million, including at least one at $100 million. Some of the circuit’s seven teams finished this season with cash flow north of $1 million, the sources said, due in large part to sponsorship deals and comparatively small overhead.
“All it takes is a couple of generational talents on a big enough stage to change the entire perception of the sport,” Ohanian, owner of the TGL’s Los Angeles Golf Club, said. “Golf is one of those sports that is so on the precipice. You can see it online. You can see the creator economy telling the story of this sport. This format of TGL is so perfect for the online generation. Again, I say this as a Reddit guy. Take my word for it. It is perfectly built for the social media age.”
Ohanian joins Arthur Blank, another TGL owner, as the first two investors in the WTGL. Both are paying about $20 million for their women’s team, according to two of the sources. A rep for TGL declined to comment on the financials.
The men’s league formally launched in January 2025—one year later than originally planned—as the first project for TMRW Sports, a venture co-founded by Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Mike McCarley. TMRW sold its first six TGL franchises for a rough average of about $35 million. Last year the group announced its first expansion franchise in Detroit. That investment group, which includes Detroit Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp and Denver Broncos owner Rob Walton, bought in for a little more than $70 million, Sportico previously reported.
Teams have continued to court investors, either by raising new rounds or selling LP stakes. In October, Ilitch Sports + Entertainment bought into Ohanian’s Los Angeles Golf Club at a number that SBJ reported as “close to $90 million.” A few months earlier, Blank’s Atlanta Drive GC sold an LP stake that valued the club at about $100 million, sources said.
Those close to the TGL say franchise economics have benefited from the league’s single-venue model. It took MLS teams roughly two decades to hit the $100 million mark, and NWSL teams about a decade, and very few of those teams are profitable even today. That’s due in part to venue costs for stadiums and practice facilities, and rising player costs.
In TGL, teams don’t have venue or practice facility costs—all matches are held in a single location, a tech-laden venue that TGL built on the campus of Palm Beach State College in Florida. Teams are comprised of just a handful of golfers and their compensation is partially handled by the league itself.
That allows clubs to operate with limited overhead, especially when compared to other startup leagues. That’s especially true for teams like Blank’s Atlanta Drive GC and Fenway Sports Group’s Boston Common GC, which can tap into the sales infrastructure of the other pro teams in their owners’ portfolios. (The other side of that equation is that teams don’t own all of the league; there’s equity set aside for TMRW, the PGA Tour and the players themselves.)
Sponsorships are the biggest piece of revenue for teams right now. While much of the on-site hospitality is handled by the league, teams do have fan sections that they can monetize for their own matches. There is revenue-sharing around the league, including from media deals and corporate deals like the title sponsorship with SoFi, and some clubs are hosting local watch parties or other events that add to the bottom line. For more information on the group’s pre-launch revenue projections and equity structure, Sportico wrote about the initial plans in April 2023.
The WTGL is planning to launch later this year. While the existing men’s franchise owners don’t have contractual right of first refusal on those teams, it’s telling that the first two have sold to existing TGL owners. Adding a women’s team gives those groups an opportunity to expand their brand, and it gives them more inventory (in days of competition and number of golfers) to sell to sponsors.
Moving forward, in addition to WTGL, the group is looking to expand its men’s league. That will likely start with an eighth franchise, but the league could grow further shortly after. There’s been consistent interest from groups in Toronto, sources said, with other domestic and international groups also in the mix.