Brooks Koepka and Abranham Ancer going to LIV Tour.
- Thread starter DesotoCountyDawg
- Start date
I get what you're saying but it's kind of a hoot considering the $ is coming from state-owned oil proceeds.
Oil money has turned European soccer on its head. First it was Abromavich buying titles at Chelsea. Now it's Man City and PSG. Newcastle is about to join the club and maybe eclipse them all. None of those clubs were all that before the oil money.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramco_Team_Series
Women's Euro Tour(LET) plays a 4-5 tournament series that is funded by ARAMCO, the Saudi Oil Company, and at most there are a few ignored op-eds complaining about sports-washing and where the funding is coming from. Otherwise, crickets.
A new Men's Tour is formed, funded by the Saudi Investment Fund, and op-eds listing all the problems with the funding source flood the internet, social media, radio, and TV.
Women's Euro Tour(LET) plays a 4-5 tournament series that is funded by ARAMCO, the Saudi Oil Company, and at most there are a few ignored op-eds complaining about sports-washing and where the funding is coming from. Otherwise, crickets.
A new Men's Tour is formed, funded by the Saudi Investment Fund, and op-eds listing all the problems with the funding source flood the internet, social media, radio, and TV.
isn't the "state" pretty much privately owned?
disclaimer: I have no actual idea about Saudi structure just vague recollections of "seeing something" on TV once...
disclaimer: I have no actual idea about Saudi structure just vague recollections of "seeing something" on TV once...
Yeah I don't know the technical structure, this is who owns the LIV tour. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Investment_Fund
Yes this is how it is constantly described. The crown prince/House of Saud owns a bunch of nationalized companies. MBS, the crown prince, is 2nd in command but is basically running it all.
I just find it funny that the golf media like to constantly bring up its Saudi owned (which I totally get the Saudis are ****) but the PGA just did a lucrative media deal with China and are planning on helping them host some tournaments there but in the eyes of the golf media there’s nothing wrong with that.
They know where their bread is buttered.
They know where their bread is buttered.
I do not have all the facts. I probably don't even know half of them, but from the outside looking in the PGA comes off like petulant children because some guys are chasing money in this other league. If people want to get paid to go play in a league owned by Saudis then more power to them. Not like the heads of the PGA are any better. Or the NFL, or MLB, or the NBA for that matter.
No clue why this continues to be a story. There's pro tours all over the planet. PGA never gave a 17 about any of them till now. All these players leaving are all struggling on the PGA tour lately. Who cares if they wanna try something a little easier for a bit.
players are independent contractors. They can go play wherever they like. PGA comes off looking bad in all of this. Acting like the players are breaking some contract
The PGA is scared of it because it’s competition so they tell people in the golf world to bash the **** out of the tour. I don’t think LIV will last but the PGA looks like a bunch of ******** for causing such a stir over it.
If they play in a competing pro event within the USA they are breaking an agreement they signed with the PGA tour. Can't do that. And all the tournaments that PGA players have played in abroad..... members had to get permission from the PGA Tour. The 'independent contractor' label applies to PGA members picking and choosing what events they want to play on the PGA Tour. So when a member signs on with a competing tour there are consequences. I don't know why people have a hard time understanding that.
They can only control the PGA Championship and the British Open. The Masters can invite whoever they want and the USGA controls the US Open.
Ultimately, if the majors want to remain relevant, they will have to accept the LIV players. If the world golf rankings want to stay relevant, they will have to give ranking points to the LIV tour. And if PGA wants to stay relevant, they will have to find a way to accommodate the LIV players. You can't just exclude a significant number of the best players in the world and expect the public to just accept it. I don't like it. It's sportswashing and it legitimizes a lot of human abuse. But it's been going on a long time in other sports (looking at you soccer and tennis) and nobody's said a word.
I suspect the difference is the women's tour is probably getting the women's pay closer to the men's, while the men's LIV tour is making already wealthy people wealthier. That's not logical, but these are largely the same people that complain about women athletes not getting paid as much as men's athletes just because they generate a fraction of the revenue.
I don't think the PGA is scared by competition as much as they are scared by competition that doesn't need to stay in the black. The Saudi's wouldn't blink if this lost $10M a year. I don't think being able to lose $10M a year is going to be enough to overcome the PGAs advantage, but is being able to lose $100M a year enough? Or I guess more realistically since the route they are going is heavy in up front money, how much money would it take to buy enough players that other PGA players would get scared the PGA is going to start offering smaller purses and they better get an upfront payment while they are being offered?
Dustin Johnson is 16th. What if they offered everybody in the top 15 $25M? $375M wouldn't be that much compared to their current investment, and while it would be low payouts compared to what has already been paid, those players can know that if they all jump, the PGA will have to give up the ban on playing in the LIV or give up claiming that they are the premier league. Going to the top 20 would only cost them $450M (b/c DJ and Koepka are already jumping). I don't think there's any way the Saudi's are going to get a postiive return at this point, but if they lose $2B and get to have essentially an all star world wide golf league that plays 8 world wide tournaments, are they happy with that? I think they might would be and I think that may be enough upfront money to throw around to get it done (not sure how the tournaments are doing; if they are making a little money, I think $2B just to entice players is enough; if the tournaments are huge losses starting off, then there may not be enough left of the $2B to entice players).
Seems like the PGA Tour wants to have their cake and eat it too. A court challenge would more than likely destroy their business model. It's just that no player has had the balls or the reason to do it, yet. We may see that, soon.
Actually they don't control the pga, the pga of America does. Not the pga tour. Two different bodies. And the R&A has the British, so the tour runs or decides how zero majors are run.
The fact of the matter is, the PGA Tour, the PGA of America, and the Royal and Ancient, who all work in conjunction with one another in some form or fashion, should have been way out in front of this. They're acting like they had no idea this was going to come together and had no plan whatsoever when it did. Notice, that all these big name players that joined LIV (not named flat broke Phil) did so AFTER the Masters. They new the PGA Tour, PGA of America and R&A had no plan of action. They also new they didn't want to have Augusta National (if they were in the field) tell them to take a lap on the Masters this year like they did to Phil. Which they did.
I really believe the chips don't begin to fall until Augusta National comes out with a statement in regards to the LIV tour and how it relates to exemptions to play in the Masters. Whether your a past champion, tour winner that year or if you qualified under the 19 different qualifications Augusta National has.
I really believe the chips don't begin to fall until Augusta National comes out with a statement in regards to the LIV tour and how it relates to exemptions to play in the Masters. Whether your a past champion, tour winner that year or if you qualified under the 19 different qualifications Augusta National has.
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