LIV Golf funding set to end after Saudi Arabia pulls support
Randall Williams
Updated ,first published
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund plans to stop financial support for LIV Golf after this season, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The fledgling golf league will make a tentative announcement for Thursday, said a person not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The news follows Bloomberg reporting earlier this month that the Saudis were considering withdrawing funding for LIV.
Wall StreetJournal It also reported that LIV plans to tell players and staff within the next 24 hours that Saudi Arabia will not provide funding for the breakaway league.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund manager Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who was behind the creation of LIV Golf, is resigning as LIV chairman as the league seeks a new strategy without Saudi funding, according to a report published Wednesday night.
Journal of Sports Management It cited three people briefed on the resignation. LIV Golf was planning to announce a new board of directors and a strategy for moving forward without its primary financial backer, including plans to seek outside financial partners and pivot to the team franchise concept.
Scott O’Neil, who replaced Greg Norman as LIV Golf’s CEO last year, told London-based TNT during LIV’s Mexico City event two weeks ago that Saudi funding was good through the 2026 season and he would be “working like crazy” to create a solid business plan.
The breakaway league dismantled professional golf and fundamentally changed the economics of the sport by luring stars away from the PGA Tour with huge contracts. LIV cost the Saudi Public Investment Fund an estimated US$5 billion ($7 billion) in just four years; Despite this significant investment, it was struggling with low attendance and weak television viewership.
Although the team concept was one of the reasons it took LIV more than three years to be recognized by the Official World Golf Rankings, Al-Rumayyan was all about team golf when he and Norman launched the league.
LIV declined to comment and PIF could not immediately be reached. The LIV season is planned to last until August.
PIF has recently signaled that its priorities have changed and said that its strategy for the next four years will be largely domestically focused. The importance of financing a golf league diminished further following the war between the United States and Iran, where the Gulf states bore the brunt of the Islamic Republic’s attacks.
PIF, which has approximately $1 trillion in assets under management, experienced financial difficulties last year and began to view sports holdings as investments that needed to yield returns, like other sectors within the fund, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
PIF was prepared to cut LIV’s funding but was looking for alternatives, Bloomberg previously reported, according to people familiar with the situation.
LIV’s death would leave players leaving the PGA Tour, including Australians Cam Smith, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, in a state of professional limbo. A few, like Brooks Koepka, returned with huge financial penalties.
Founded in 2021, LIV Golf made its debut in June 2022 and used generous, guaranteed contracts to lure dozens of stars like Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Rahm and DeChambeau away from the PGA. Despite PIF funding, the league reportedly loses millions of dollars annually.
According to MSN.com, some LIV players have reached the DP World Tour.
“We’re just in listening mode right now because we don’t know any more than everyone else knows,” DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings told MSN.
“But we will listen and make sure we are fully informed before we make the decisions we need to make. But of course there are people who are concerned and we will talk to them at the right time.”
PIF and the PGA Tour signed a framework agreement on June 6, 2023, canceling LIV’s lawsuit accusing the PGA of a monopoly. But despite US President Donald Trump’s efforts, the agreement to work together never came to fruition.
LIV has seven more events planned for this year; these include May 7-10 at Trump National Golf Club in Washington, D.C.
Bloomberg, Reuters, AP
