{"id":890092,"date":"2026-09-10T05:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T05:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/890092\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T05:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T05:08:13","slug":"liv-golfs-bankruptcy-through-the-eyes-of-one-of-its-creditors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/890092\/","title":{"rendered":"LIV Golf\u2019s Bankruptcy Through the Eyes of One of Its Creditors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAfter LIV Golf<\/a> filed for<\/a> Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey on Tuesday, the details have slowly trickled out as to what it would take for the breakaway circuit to survive.<\/p>\n

\n\tA proposed transaction with London-based private equity firm BC Partners that would inject $300 million in funding to the cash-strapped enterprise appears to be LIV Golf\u2019s lifeline. But for that deal to be consummated, a \u201crequisite number of players\u201d who \u201cequal or exceed (a) 2\/3 in amount and (b) 1\/2 in number of such Eligible Player Claims held by all Players\u201d must commit to the tour within 35 days from the petition date, a period that ends in mid-October, according to the filing. That vague designation could be a proxy for some combination of the tour\u2019s top stars, like Jon Rahm<\/a>, Bryson DeChambeau<\/a> or Dustin Johnson. Those three golfers are owed a combined $18.7 million as creditors, a number that only includes pre-existing obligations.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the prospect of pulling that off has at least one other LIV Golf creditor on edge. \u201cIt feels very risky,\u201d Jared Kleinstein, the founder and CEO of Fresh Tape Media, said in an interview. \u201cI came into reading the case assuming the BC Partners deal was a great position for LIV 2.0 to be in. I\u2019m hopeful for them, but cautiously optimistic that they can get the same threshold of the previous players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKleinstein\u2019s outfit has been locked in a legal battle with LIV Golf since filing a complaint in July<\/a>. Fresh Tape Media, a creative agency that has worked with the Houston Rockets, the WNBA and Amazon Prime, to name a few of its clients, produced the tour\u2019s opening media week in February, which the lawsuit describes as \u201ca major multiday pre-season event for the LIV Golf league, featuring players, media, stakeholders and fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe agency covered a wide range of operations for the event, including managing logistics, fabrication, production duties and more. In total, Fresh Tape Media was due more than $1.2 million. It was never paid, and eventually received settlement offers of $200,000 and $150,000 in May and June, respectively. Fresh Tape Media did not accept either, and Kleinstein declined to share how much has been spent on legal fees thus far, which is not covered in the outstanding $1.2 million balance.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur financial planning has protected us from having to make really drastic decisions, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not affecting how we look at things like bonuses and what we can do for raises next [year],\u201d David Herman, Fresh Tape Media\u2019s general manager, said. \u201cThere are real consequences despite the biggest consequence being avoided because of good financial planning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe company was hardly the only one to be stiffed by LIV. Fresh Tape Media appears as the No. 21 ranked creditor in the bankruptcy filing, which is topped by Rahm ($7.5 million) and DeChambeau ($5.8 million) and includes more than $64 million in unsecured claims.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe filings also give a sense of LIV\u2019s overall income last year. The documents say that the golf circuit\u2019s largest revenue stream\u2014sponsorships\u2014was about $102 million in 2025 and that the total was 49% of the overall implied $208 million in revenue. Reverse engineered math from its hosting fees, which LIV says were \u201cover $34 million\u201d and 22% of the overall, imply a smaller number. Either way, the overall percentages are clear. Sponsorship is about half the business, followed by hosting fees (22%) and tickets\/hospitality (16%). Broadcast rights and merchandise were both 5% each.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe term sheet of LIV\u2019s arrangement with BC Partners shows the $300 million investment is divided into three main buckets\u2014a $127.5 million term loan with warrants to buy an equivalent in 5% of the new LIV parent, $147.5 million in preferred equity with warrants that add to 10% of the new LIV parent, and $25 million in convertible notes that would eventually result in BC holding 30% of the new LIV parent. (More specific deal financials start on Page 109<\/a> of this document). That could eventually mean BC and its group would own 45% of the new LIV. Players, according to the document, would hold 52.5%, with management owning the resulting 2.5%.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs part of the deal, BC has the right to purchase an expansion team for $1 following the addition of two more teams. That right expires after 10 years. The firm will also receive 2% of all revenue generated by LIV for seven years after the new LIV reaches profitability. There are other contingencies built into the BC restructuring arrangement, according to the filings, including a 3% break fee and the aforementioned contingency on LIV getting enough players to sign on.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt this point, Kleinstein said he \u201ccan\u2019t really speak to how we\u2019re going to approach the bankruptcy,\u201d while noting he\u2019s aware of the varying options, like participating on a creditors committee. He\u2019s hopeful LIV 2.0 can emerge from all this chaos and said it would be tough to watch the tour thrive if his company still hasn\u2019t been paid. There\u2019s no guarantee as to how much money the 21-employee Fresh Tape Media will be able to recoup, if any.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, Kleinstein didn\u2019t rule out working with LIV Golf again under the right circumstances.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf they paid upfront for the work, and it was the people who we love and trust on their team to work with, it would be a bad business decision to turn that down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After LIV Golf filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey on Tuesday, the details have slowly trickled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[1975,49,48,622,1977,6674,82],"class_list":["post-890092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-bryson-dechambeau","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-jon-rahm","tag-liv-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}