When the PGA Tour and the fledgling LIV Golf league, which is paid for by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, announced their groundbreaking deal in June for the men’s golf circuits to join forces, they left out most of the details and set a December 31 deadline to find out. they went out
Now, it is clear that both sides will need more time.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said in a memo to players Sunday night that the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, are “working to extend” negotiations to New Year.
The sides are discussing 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 yet to set any new formal deadlines.
Those negotiations continue as the PGA Tour moves forward in 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 the English soccer club Liverpool.
said Mr. Monahan said on Sunday that the tour and the Strategic Sports Group had “made significant progress” in their talks and that the tour had “provided the 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 significant uncertainty about the deal. Since the June announcement, the questions that initially accompanied the agreement’s frantic rollout appear to have multiplied: How will potential US investment sit alongside Saudi money? How will the golf circuits cooperate even though the Saudis are actively seeking to destroy PGA Tour players?
The planned partnership was announced on June 6 with few contours of an actual agreement. The PGA Tour and the Saudi wealth fund plan to work out the details, including governance, the valuation of assets and how the money will work, by the end of 2023.
About two weeks after announcing the tentative partnership, the tour and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which have been bitterly feuding for months, agreed to end their violent litigation against each other. . LIV accused the tour of violating antitrust laws, and the tour accused LIV of improperly interfering with existing player contracts.
In the months since, the initial agreement has faced backlash from players, who said they were blindsided by the deal, and American lawmakers, some of whom are calling for further investigation into the tour’s ties to Saudi money and influence. .
Dissatisfaction among players, including those on the PGA Tour’s powerful policy board, is widespread. And LIV Golf recently signed Jon Rahm, the No. 3 player in the Official World Golf Ranking, poaching him from the PGA Tour and highlighting Saudi’s continued willingness to spend money on the sport and make LIV a tour competitor.
“Having Jon on board is very important to our future and what we want to do,” Greg Norman, LIV Golf’s chief executive, said. said the move. “It will create a domino effect – there will be more apples falling from the tree – no question about it, because LIV continues to evolve.”
