The PGA TOUR has secured a massive deal which will include a 3 billion dollar investment from Strategic Sports Group. But what does this most recent turn of events mean for ongoing negotiations with the PIF and LIV Golf?
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okay more breaking news as Bloomberg and
many other sports media Outlets are
reporting as of today that strategic
Sports Group is set to invest $3 billion
into the PGA Tour and perhaps even more
importantly that investment could start
rolling in as early as next week now as
a quick reminder strategic Sports Group
is a us-based group of investors that
include some Heavy Hitters in the sports
industry including Ste con who’s the
owner of the Mets you’ve got Fenway
Sports Group and a number of other big
names in there but the key here is that
this $3 billion investment is
independent of the ongoing talks between
the PGA Tour and the piif which are of
course the financial backers behind Liv
those negotiations are continuing we had
heard word uh that over the last couple
of weeks J Monahan was over in Saudi
Arabia continuing those talks so this by
no means takes that deal off the table
but what it definitely does do is it
gives the PGA Tour a lot more leverage
in those negotiations because $3 billion
is undoubtedly significant now we don’t
know yet they haven’t released the exact
figure three billion is kind of the
number that’s been leaked but as far as
what’s the term on that how long that’s
going to be but regardless it’s a
significant cash injection which can
help the PGA tour continue to support
those massive purses that we’re seeing
in the Signature Events we’re going to
talk about that more in just a second
but more importantly as we’ve talked and
as these these kind of negotiations
between the PF and the PGA Tour have
grinded on gone past that deadline one
thing we’ve continually talked about
here on the show is that it seemed like
livol and the PF was starting to hold
more and more of the cards as they
continue to take more players more
Marquee players from the PGA tour of
course John ROM was the big announcement
then just this week we’ve got Terell
Hatton now making the move over so in a
lot of ways that was the Liv and the pif
really strengthening their hand in the
negotiations kind of showing that they
needed the PGA Tour less and less now
the PGA Tour effectively is striking
back by putting $3 billion of us-based
investment in their back pocket kind of
makes it to where they can continue to
compete with
in the area of these massive purses and
massive payouts and what is ultimately
coming down the line is a little bit
more of an equity share for the players
that’s something we’ve heard but now
they need live in the pif just a little
bit less because they have that money
but that’s not to say that the two are
not still going to come together in some
way uh there’s been people speculating
again it’s in kind of the early stages
of this information coming out but
there’s been people speculating that we
could see almost a similar size
investment from the pif as the two come
together just we’re even seeing numbers
now of like the PGA Tour a total value
going somewhere over12 billion once all
the Investments have settled down and
this is so key it’s important if the PGA
Tour wants to continue to put up the
kind of purse money that they’ve been
doing for this Signature Events there
are now multiple events on the schedule
that are $20 million Up purses this is a
massive jump over some of the $9 million
and so purses that we saw just over the
past couple of years and what that’s
really done is it’s forced a lot of key
sponsors out because it’s just getting
to be too expensive recently we saw uh
Wells Fargo uh declare that they’re no
longer going to be hosting an event and
then we’ve got now um on top of that
Wells Fargo we had Farmers Insurance
saying that this most recent event at
Tory Pines is going to to be their last
because ultimately it just becomes not
sustainable for some of these companies
to put up the type of money that it
takes to run these events now I’ve
continued to express that I think that
this whole thing really is not
sustainable I’m hoping over the long run
we see some way that it can be more
sustainable but as we make the players
richer and richer with these massive
purses it becomes harder and harder to
support that from a business standpoint
but clearly the Strategic Sports group
is seeing the value in that if they’re
going to be putting up the $3 billion
but don’t forget they’re going to want
something out of that and they’re going
to want that the eyeballs and the growth
and what’s really going to have to
happen at some point you think would be
the PGA Tour and live coming together
because so long as they operate
separately and as Rivals and these
issues we’re seeing now with players
like Terrell Hatton and they’re no
longer playing on the PGA tour or the DP
World Tour what that ultimately do does
it fragments the audience it splits them
apart so there’s going to be less
viewership I mean that’s something we’ve
we’ve talked about here in the podcast
we’ve heard a lot of people say it and
talk about how what this is really doing
is it’s taking a lot of the Casual
viewers of golf and it’s frustrating
them you know they’re not sure it’s
becoming more difficult to understand
between the two tours how when and where
do they watch the different events so
ultimately it’s great to see that the
continued cash injection and the
investment in the sport that we follow
so closely but where is the long-term
sustainability we get to a point where
we keep pouring more and more money in
but it makes me wonder is that the
investment that’s going to keep this
going are the investors who are putting
up the big bucks the ones who are going
to continue to be satisfied by that
investment and continue to invest to
support these huge purses these player
ownerships these signing bonuses
everything that we’re seeing now now
it’s their money not mine I would only
hope that they are seeing the future far
enough down the road and it does make
sense to them but it is concerning to
see so much money going around
regardless though that’s the latest
we’ve seen now this this huge $3 billion
injection which will undoubtedly make
things a little bit easier for the PGA
tour in their negotiations and their
ability to support those big payout
Signature Events but where it leads for
the ultimate
uh agreement that framework agreement
we’ve been throwing around and where
that’s going to land between the PGA
Tour and live golf remains to be seen
but by no means have anything that I’ve
seen indicating out of this deal that
just broke hours ago just in the past
hour there’s nothing in there that I’ve
seen that’s indicated that that means
it’s going to come to a stop in the
negotiations between the PGA Tour and
live those continue to seem to grind on
this is not necessarily A placement to
that more so a supplement to that and
like I said it definitely helps the PGA
Tours negotiation position by not quite
needing as much cash in the deal with
the PF but let us know what you think
about this deal where you think
everything’s headed over the next couple
of weeks we’re going to stay really on
top of this any breaking news we’ll make
sure to bring it right to you guys
27 Comments
LIV is still winning.
If the PGA have cut the PIF out of the deal then good luck with that. PIF have more money to expand LIV than you can imagine. I see the LIV tour being the world tour it already is in a way. European and world players will be attracted to it and I'm all for it. You Americans are blinkered, have your PGA tour for American players. There is another world outside the USA 😂
3 billion is chump change for PIF why would you sink that money in a tour that has very little chance of making a return on this investment all the pga tour had to do was accept that the rest of the world wants to see top level competition up close and personal, LIV are trying to do this, pga tour was a success all these years because if you wanted to be the best you had to play on the pga tour now the best can play for fun, travel the world and earn way more than they would have made playing for the red white and blue tour, LIV are not the problem here
Gives them zero leverage. You don't think PIF signed off on this? With the deal done now PIF can come aboard with no Govt scrutiny. Bad take brother.
I get the sense that the PGA is again shooting itself and Golf in the foot. What's new?
The PGA Tour's new format only benefits the top 50 players. If you don't play in the signature events you don't matter. How does this keep the players from defecting to LIV. The PGA Tour is resembling LIV now with eight signature events plus the TPC and the three FedEx Cup events. Most of these signature events will be no cut and a limited field. Why would any of the sponsors want to be involved in the non signature events.
The investment will want a ROI
LIV don’t for years. It’s time the PIF just said stuff the tour we are going alone
What do they do with $3 billion? Monahan pays himself even more?
They dropped it to 1.5b. Clearly they didn't like something they saw in the due diligence.
Eventually, it will reset. And you will see new willing to play for 9 million and not 20 million. I will play for 1 million. Just saying 😅
This is the death sentence for the PGA
I stopped watching the PGA about 15 years ago except some final day rounds and some Majors but got tired of the mostly same venues and locations. Now I watch LIV global events and love the team format as well.
In my opinion, all this money into golf will funnel it's way down, and in a better more efficient and transparent way than it ever did under the funnel of control the suits at the PGAT, ET, USPGA, R&A ever did.
How long will 3 billion last? 6 months? You don't think they want a return on that investment? That group will own the players, they arent getting any equity. That was just a lie to stop an even bigger exodus to LIV. The equity is in the team and worldwide exposure which LIV has. My advice to players on the pga tour is to start forming teams and competing worldwide. There is room for traditional golf and team golf.
I think they are thinking they can go head to head with LIV/PIF. Rory saying "let them back in" and "let's all play together" is actually a warning sign. If PGA tries to go head to head with LIV they will lose and LIV will aggressively sign 3 or 4 more superstars, give them part of a team or their own. Rank and file players also seem very worried about the state of the game.
If you think 3 billion is a lot of money PIF might have other things to say about that
Well, the PGA Tour had ruined the telly coverage early showing nothing, but the leaderboard for multiple minutes on broadcasting sold overseas.
– Welcome back, this happened before… Aa’nd the same fu…ing putts made an hour ago!
And the leaderboard burning for the continuance of the commercial break is 9 holes before the current. And lasts ofer two minutes easy. There would be some ’non Marqee groups ’to show for the spectators overseas. Unlike the strugling world former #1 or someone five off the pace rather than 2 off who would be intresting for people watching in Europe or Asia.
Monahans did it wrong. It will not give pgat a leverage in negotiation with PIF. Not at all.
You might want to do your homework on where the money from SSG comes from. Some of those investors are backed by the Saudis just saying
Invest in a not for profit PGAT? Me, corruption is deep on this news.
You are absolutely correct , the golf world is starting to over value its importance to the main stream . I for one am playing less green fees are going up everywhere. I am starting to find other interests that have more of a return . Golf is going the way of most professional sports rich athletic organizations out of touch with mainstream.
This seems like a very short sited action from the PGA, the saudis are laughing. Do they really think this is a leverage play? watch the Saudi's up their investment now to 10 Bn, like, Monahan's view that he has to gate keep the PGA is nonsense, the saudis will just demolish those gates eventually. You guys can say all you want that this puts more leverage into the PGA tour and that very well could be the case, but the amount of leverage this creates for the PGA is very miniscule. Look at the memo's Al-Rumayyan and Norman released to LIV, partnership with Google now for innovative ways to distribute golf coverage. Monahan has to go, he's only fighting for himself right now, not the Tour as a whole. Very bad Strategic path he chose to take the tour, loss of key sponsors, McIlroy flipping the stance. You guys should be laying into the PGA right now, they played this so wrong from the start. Stop pitting leverage against leverage, do your homework, build a timeline of how everything went down from a neutral or business standpoint. Your watching one side be completely REACTIONARY (PGA) against a side that's been using their power of wealth to make this as hard as possible for Monahan to keep his job….He should of took that phone call.
Oh, maybe I have somebody who will look into it. How are the players owners? Are they buying ETFs? Are they tokenizing the PGA tour because that means nothing is buying nothing if the PGA tour players are owners are they buying in or is it given to them and if they are buying and how are they buying in?
So the PGA tour players are buying into a dying business which on the backside the PGA tour could be sucking the money back out, so the players are buying a dead cat
This deal only serves the purpose of providing the PGA Tour more leverage in their negotiations with LIV by propping up its perceived value. This will not fool LIV. The PGA Tour’s only assets are The Players Championship, its stranglehold over OWGR, and its heritage/brand. It has no contracts with players and specific tournament relationships has little value except for a few. PGA Tour is still pursuing a scorched earth strategy but don’t realize that they are in the weaker position. LIV already has more name recognition top players. Over the past 7 years, LIV players account for half of majors and over half of the weeks at number 1. There is no return for SSG at a $3 billion investment unless LIV buys them out for a higher price – which they do not need to do. All LIV needs is one of Rory, Scheffler or Speith and greater influence with DP World Tour and the Majors which can be lobbied much the same as our politicians are lobbied.
You mentioned that money could be rolling in within a week, it’s been two weeks now and absolutely no news on ANY pending cash injection. Don’t hold your breath on this.
SSG was really just buying PGAT. The money will pay off tour stalwarts, SSG did this so they are clear to deal with PIF on the new world tour which will earn billions yearly. BUY SHARES ppl