PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia-backed LIV extend the deadline to complete the deal
When the PGA Tour and the upstart LIV Golf League, funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, announced their landmark deal in June to let the men’s golf circuits join forces, they left most details unanswered and set a Dec. 31 deadline to to join forces. them out.
Now it is clear that the two sides will need more time.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said in a memo to players Sunday evening that the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, were “working to extend negotiations” into the new year.
The sides had discussed signing a formal one-month extension, which could be extended further, said three people familiar with the negotiations who were not authorized to discuss them. But while both sides remain focused on completing a deal, they have not yet set a new formal deadline.
Those negotiations continue as the PGA Tour progresses with simultaneous talks to raise additional money from Strategic Sports Group, an investment group led by Fenway Sports Group – the parent company of the Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Penguins and English soccer club Liverpool.
Mr Monahan said on Sunday that the tour and Strategic Sports Group had “made meaningful progress” in their discussions and that the tour had “provided SSG with the due diligence information they requested.” The parties are focused on finalizing the terms of the deal and documents, he said.
The PGA Tour, the Saudi wealth fund and the Strategic Sports Group enter 2024 with great uncertainty about the deal. Since its announcement in June, the questions that initially accompanied the deal’s frenzied rollout appear to have increased: How will potential U.S. investments compare to Saudi money? How will the golf circuits work together even as the Saudis are still actively trying to poach PGA Tour players?
The planned partnership was announced on June 6 with scant outlines of an actual agreement. The PGA Tour and the Saudi wealth fund planned to hammer out details by the end of 2023, including governance, asset valuations and how the money would be deployed.
About two weeks after the preliminary partnership was announced, the tour and the Saudi wealth fund, which had been engaged in a bitter battle for months, agreed to drop their bitter lawsuit against each other. LIV had accused the tour of violating antitrust laws, and the tour had accused LIV of improperly interfering with existing player contracts.
In the months that followed, the tentative pact faced backlash from players, who said they were blindsided by the deal, and from U.S. lawmakers, with some demanding further investigation into the tour’s ties to Saudi money and influence.
Discontent among players, including those on the powerful PGA Tour policy board, was pervasive. And LIV Golf recently signed Jon Rahm, the No. 3 player in the Official World Golf Ranking, taking him off the PGA Tour and highlighting the Saudis’ continued willingness to spend money on the sport and making LIV a rival to to make the tour.
“Having Jon on board was critical to our future and what we want to do,” said Greg Norman, CEO of LIV Golf. said of the move. “It will create a domino effect – more apples will fall from the tree – there is no doubt about that as LIV continues to evolve.”