US Investors will bid to bail out the PGA Tour

[Carl Johnson]

Rumor has it that the SEC and Big 10 are getting ready to merge and compete with the NCAA.  Not sure where their money is coming from.  Saudi or other billionaires.  LIV started something.  O.K., it will be coming from TV broadcasts and streams, but you get the idea.  What is the world coming to?  My goodness.

[Sean_A]

"When did the enjoyment of sports become synonymous with accounting? And given the massive gaps in information (e.g., what, exactly, does $52 million mean to Jim Dolan and the future of Madison Square Garden Company), why does “smart fandom” so often require fans to engage in uninformed, wild speculation about the fiscal health of billion-dollar corporations?"
 
Jay Kang said it better than anyone . . . https://grantland.com/features/the-veil-opulence-whether-really-relate-everyone-sports/

When the media and fans decided it was their business as to where the money comes from and their perogative to decide if the money is clean or not without the slightest hint of self delusion as to how our economy, politicians and big business works. Talk about arbitrary lines in the sand 🙄.

Ciao

[Kalen Braley]

Rumor has it that the SEC and Big 10 are getting ready to merge and compete with the NCAA.  Not sure where their money is coming from.  Saudi or other billionaires.  LIV started something.  O.K., it will be coming from TV broadcasts and streams, but you get the idea.  What is the world coming to?  My goodness.

Was just discussing this the other day with a group of friends.

Given the Saudis allegedly have hundreds of billions in discretionary funds I think every sport may be susceptible. I don't believe it started with LIV thou, I'm guessing it was when they started luring big names to the Saudi soccer league and now they're doing same with golf. I could certainly see college football being next as it draws massive ratings.

I think my buddy put it best "The Saudis are showing the brutal effectiveness of insane amounts of money and power to exploit the core of capitalism" followed by "and it will infect everything including the inner workings of the political system"

[Peter Sayegh]

compete with the NCAA

Does the NCAA have any potency these days?

[Charlie Goerges]

the Saudis...

I agree with you and your friends' points here Kalen. I just want to reiterate that the context really matters. It's not the money or the foreign ownership that's the problem for me. For instance, not too many people are hand-wringing about the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (which is even bigger than the PIF). It's the current brutality of the regime that matters to me.

[Tommy Williamsen]

the Saudis...

I agree with you and your friends' points here Kalen. I just want to reiterate that the context really matters. It's not the money or the foreign ownership that's the problem for me. For instance, not too many people are hand-wringing about the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (which is even bigger than the PIF). It's the current brutality of the regime that matters to me.

That sentiment seems to be getting lost in the discussion. It led the discussion initially. Nobody's hands are entirely clean, however. I have Norwegian heritage. Norway is a tad hypocritical. They want to be a green nation, but their money comes from oil. They just don't brutalize their citizens.

[Wayne_Kozun]

And now the Saudis are strong-arming consultants who worked on the deal and they are trying to avoid any disclosures related to this transaction.  I don't think that is going to work out for them if they try to see that we are not subject to any sort of congressional oversight due to a sort of sovereign immunity.

Saudi Arabia has threatened to imprison the bankers and consultants it works with if they cooperate with a probe by US lawmakers into the planned merger of the PGA Tour with LIV Golf.
The kingdom’s Public Investment Fund sued its advisers in a Saudi court in November in order to prevent them from submitting information to the US Senate committee on homeland security and governmental affairs. Violating the court order could lead the kingdom to imprison executives and their staffers for 20 years, according to veteran investment banker Michael Klein, one of the top advisers to the fund.
“This represents aberrant behavior for a client, and, quite frankly, for the PIF, who has historically been a client that has operated with best practices of governance with us,” Klein said at a hearing held by the committee. He testified alongside Boston Consulting Group’s Rich Lesser, McKinsey’s Bob Sternfels and Teneo Strategy Chief Executive Officer Paul Keary.

[Mike_Trenham]

I keep hearing that the investors are committing to invest up $3.0 billion into The PGA Tour and that $1.5 billion will be used to fund player equity shares. 


This is simply not the case.  It should not cost the PGA Tour any cash out to simply give out grants, unless the grants come with some sort of cash element to cover the potential tax implications on the players for earning the grants.  The cash outflows will come when players exit the tour and need to make way for new players to earn their shares. 


These guys do not historically value deferred compensation and it feels just like an expanded pension plan program. 


This is how I view it but I could easily be missing something/ a lot.