FT reported LIV Golf may be headed to bankruptcy. Players who opted for outsized contracts found LIV ready to renege. Star golfers reportedly received offers worth pennies on the dollar of their remaining remuneration.
BC Partners private credit arm may fund the operation and Liberty Strategic Capital (Steve Mnuchin) may enter on the equity or debt side.
The easy, fun big player money is gone as the Saudis decided not to throw more good money after bad.
Flashback four years to the formation of LIV Golf:
... admitting the SGL was nothing more than what he called “sportswashing” by a brutally repressive regime. “They’re scary motherfuckers to get involved with,” he said. “We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates. They’ve been able to get by with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse. As nice a guy as [PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan] comes across as, unless you have leverage, he won’t do what’s right. And the Saudi money has finally given us that leverage. I’m not sure I even want [the SGL] to succeed, but just the idea of it is allowing us to get things done with the [PGA] Tour.”’
Who knew sportswashing had a rinse cycle? Who besides the players will be hung out to dry?
Professional golfers will get an up close look at their new private equity/private credit owners. I doubt they like what they see.
Welcome to the world of the average worker over the last fifteen to twenty years. They thought they were part of something until they were told they weren't. Workers thought they would be fairly compensated, pay and benefits, for their hard work and contributions. Executives nickeled and dimed them on pay while slashing benefits. Workloads became absurd and quality suffered. The system optimized returns to owners and executives, as that was the design.
Trump II expects LIV Golf to survive and keep booking tournaments at his courses. The man tends to get his way, like all rich scary motherf'ers.
The Saudi royals killed a U.S. reporter because they did not like what he wrote. I'd hate to be a key person in the golf league that cost them billions, especially one that used LIV Golf to "get things done with the PGA Tour."
Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren. Increasingly, more are one.
