Over the past couple of years, Saudi-backed LIV Golf has thrown around a lot of money luring some of golf’s top stars away from the PGA Tour with massive cash signing bonuses and a lucrative pay structure. But it doesn’t sound like that investment is paying off so far.
This week, Mark Schlabach explained why Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – which financially backs LIV Golf – would be seeking a deal with the PGA Tour. And the reasoning is simple: nobody is watching LIV Golf in the United States, despite their absolutely massive investment into the league.
“According to data obtained by ESPN, the final round of LIV Golf’s March 1-3 tournament in Saudi Arabia averaged 208,000 viewers in the U.S. There was a seven-hour time difference, with TV coverage in the U.S. starting at 3:05 a.m. ET. The final round of the Cognizant Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, which Austin Eckroat won for his first PGA Tour victory, averaged 1.362 million,” Schlabach wrote for ESPN this week.
“Former LIV Golf COO Atul Khosla told ESPN in 2022 that the PIF spent about $784 million on the new circuit in 2022, and that didn’t include the hundreds of millions of dollars in signing bonuses it paid to lure golfers to the league. In court papers, PIF’s lawyers wrote that LIV Golf had generated virtually no revenue in its first season.”
Partnering with the PGA Tour would give them a greater and more consistent audience in the United States and provide a much better return on investment than LIV Golf currently provides, which is why the Public Investment Fund is currently in talks about partnering with the PGA Tour.
[ESPN]
