To date, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has pumped almost $6 billion into LIV Golf and, according the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, is on the verge of withdrawing its financial backing of the breakaway golf tour.
Despite power outages making for a rather embarrassing start to LIV’s latest event in Mexico City, the coverage did manage to include a couple of interviews with Scott O’Neil to address the swirling rumors of the league’s imminent demise.
At first, O’Neil – a former CEO of NBA team the Philadelphia 76ers and president of Madison Square Garden Sports – took aim at those reporting on the ongoing story, telling anchor Arlo White that he has “never been in an industry that has more unnamed sources than this one”.
He added: “In fact, I was reading through some coverage this morning and I couldn’t find one source on the record from all the articles that were written.”
Somewhat crucially, though, O’Neil was unable to produce any proof that what he describes as “clickbait stories” that are “grabbing for headlines” are untrue, instead insisting that he is “really excited about where we are going” and how “some structural changes” are coming.
“You can ask the 50 people I met in Augusta,” he continued. “I rolled out the plan.”
“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.”
He realizes, though, that taking on the PGA Tour in the United States is a battle not worth fighting.
“I love the US market,” he said. “It’s the number one TV market in the world, period. It’s the number one sponsorship market in the world, period.
“But, long term, do you want to bet on 340 million people or 7.5 billion people? I’m taking a 7.5 billion person bet. That’s something we should be excited about. Because golf should be seen around the world with some of the biggest stars in the game. And that’s what we’re doing.”
But then the kicker.
In a now deleted interview with TNT, which broadcasts the league’s tournaments in the UK, O’Neil all but confirmed that this is the last season LIV Golf will be backed by the PIF.
When asked by presenter Oliver Wilson if Sergio Garcia was right to say that players have been told LIV is funded until 2032, O’Neil replied: “The reality is that you’re funded through the season, and then you work like crazy to create a business, and a business plan, to keep us going.”
“But that’s not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of mankind.”
That plan, it seems, is to lean on the team aspect of LIV Golf – something O’Neil has never made secret in the 16 months since he took over from Greg Norman.
“I grew up in the sports business America,” he continued. “I’ve worked in the NBA, the NHL and the NFL, and when I started with the Nets, I remember in 1992, Utah Jazz were sold for $13 million. They recently sold for just under $2 billion. Then I went to go work for the Philadelphia Eagles. Jeff Lurie, who still owns the team, bought it for $188 million and people thought he had lost his mind. It’s just been reported that he sold a piece of it for $8 billion and so the essence of the return on this business will come through the equity in our teams.”
Another plan O’Neil hinted at was to “blend a version of LIV and the great national opens around the world”.
“We think they’re the most underappreciated, undermarketed, and underdeveloped assets in golf,” he added. “And the reason is it gets us on the ground to grow the game of golf.”
Of course, the national Opens are all DP World Tour events – and the Wentworth-based circuit currently has a strategic alliance with the PGA Tour.
One thing is safe to say, and that is that this is far from over.