LIV to Merge with PGA Tour



Jesus. Can we stop pretending this is about 9/11?  bin Salman and friends kill or imprison their detractors on a daily basis, and the Kashoggi murder is a lot more fresh and directly attributable to bin Salman than 9/11. If you are a woman, a Jew, or a homosexual —  or simply know and respect one -- the last brand you'd want to endorse is the Saudi Royal Family. 

Now I'm wondering what the Saudi's hope to get out of it. If they're just funding larger PGA purses, how does the sportswashing work? Outside a  handful of already wealthy golfers, who is grateful or even aware of the people behind the newly named entity?  My guess is they throw Global into the name and everyone hides behind that. 

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
Jesus. Can we stop pretending this is about 9/11?  bin Salman and friends kill or imprison their detractors on a daily basis, and the Kashoggi murder is a lot more fresh and directly attributable to bin Salman than 9/11. If you are a woman, a Jew, or a homosexual —  or simply know and respect one -- the last brand you'd want to endorse is the Saudi Royal Family. 
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I'm fine including all the above as reasons why they shouldn't be involved with the Saudi Royal Family.

Guy Chamberlin said:
Now I'm wondering what the Saudi's hope to get out of it. If they're just funding larger PGA purses, how does the sportswashing work? Outside a  handful of already wealthy golfers, who is grateful or even aware of the people behind the newly named entity?  My guess is they throw Global into the name and everyone hides behind that. 
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I'm very concerned about how they are going to change the PGA.  From my knowledge, the biggest issues the players had that flipped to LIV were 1) the money and 2) the schedule.  They wanted to play far fewer tournaments.  So, LIV has them only playing something like 4 or 5 per year.

So....how is LIV going to bring that to the PGA?  Is the schedule going to be cut back to less than 10 tourneys per year?  That's fine for the top guys that are earning millions.  But, the rank and file players that are trying to make it live off of much smaller paychecks each week.

 
I mean literally, if you are spending billions of dollars to promote Saudi Arabia as a sponsor of golf and friend of the American sportsman, what do you do to get your name in the title or in any of the promotional materials? If you are just pumping billions into something called the Global Golf Association, how does that help people forget your human rights record, or even associate professional golf with Saudi Arabia? 

Or is it just about that point where the Global Golf Association proposes scheduling more events in the Mideast, or Trump owned properties, and the Saudi side of the association gets to remind the PGA side of the association who holds the purse strings?

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
I mean literally, if you are spending billions of dollars to promote Saudi Arabia as a sponsor of golf and friend of the American sportsman, what do you do to get your name in the title or in any of the promotional materials? If you are just pumping billions into something called the Global Golf Association, how does that help people forget your human rights record, or even associate professional golf with Saudi Arabia? 

Or is it just about that point where the Global Golf Association proposes scheduling more events in the Mideast, or Trump owned properties, and the Saudi side of the association gets to remind the PGA side of the association who holds the purse strings?
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You lost me at...."I mean literally...."

I'm trying to figure out the point you are trying to make.

 
BigRedBuster said:
I'm very concerned about how they are going to change the PGA.  From my knowledge, the biggest issues the players had that flipped to LIV were 1) the money and 2) the schedule.  They wanted to play far fewer tournaments.  So, LIV has them only playing something like 4 or 5 per year.

So....how is LIV going to bring that to the PGA?  Is the schedule going to be cut back to less than 10 tourneys per year?  That's fine for the top guys that are earning millions.  But, the rank and file players that are trying to make it live off of much smaller paychecks each week.
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I think it was more the combination of everything.  Yes, playing in fewer tournaments - and less travel going with that - is a draw.  But it was also the chance to have a guaranteed income even though they were playing in fewer tournaments, and it didn't matter how you did in those tournaments.  LIV is something like 12-14 tournaments per year.

My guess is that some of the PGA tour events will now incorporate the team element that LIV had.  Most likely the "elevated" PGA Tour events will take the place of the LIV and those will be the tournaments that the big guns will be expected to participate in and count for the team points.  Probably some sort of boosted prize money and guaranteed money as well.  Then the rest of the Tour will continue to operate as usual.

So I'm not sure it's going to change the Tour schedule all that much.  Just how the tournaments are adminstered.

 
BigRedBuster said:
You lost me at...."I mean literally...."

I'm trying to figure out the point you are trying to make.
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I mean they are literally spending billions to sportswash, presumably to make the world friendlier to Saudi Arabia through golf. How are you going to get your money's worth unless you make sure Saudi Arabia's name and influence is prominent? And what would that look like?

The controversy made sure LIV was synonymous with the Saudis for the last year, but it looks like they're moving towards generic global golf, watering down the Saudi ownership, but also, perhaps, the value of the sportswashing. I'm not sure I had a point as much as I'm just asking questions out loud. 

 
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