Golf Thread 2.0 - Zach Johnson hates you and your family

The Saudis throwing a couple of billion at Ligue 1 would not surprise me.

 

IDK if they care about the NFL but they certainly wouldn't mind getting their hands in by far the biggest sport in the country they care most about infiltrating

 

We've already seen how beIN sports allowed the Premier League to be an arm of Qatari policy in their dispute with the Saudis. Why own a team when you can own the whole fucking league.

 

would be interesting if they offered Luka, Giannis, Joker etc $200 mill a season

 

I think they want their domestic league to have the best players. It’s a retirement league now, but I don’t think they see it as one long term.

 

Speaking of, congrats to the PIF on their purchase of every US RSN.

 

The big 4 sports are all run by 30-32 separate rich assholes owners, they'll be fine. But I could easily see someone buying MLS, NWSL, or a smaller league whole.

It gets extremely complicated for leagues with promotion and relegation, as do the teams that just happen to be in the top flight at the time pocket all the money? So more likely to be more and more control for the TV rights holders imo.
Closed shops though, are pretty likely. The six nations in rugby union sold ~15% to private equity during the lockdown, and F1 is entirely owned by a private equity firm.

Doesn't the WWE already have a relationship with the Saudis?

 

The Saudis buy the ACC and make Vince the commissioner of the conference.

 

Could just use the cash icon

 

Allegedly that bid led by the ex Duke player to buy the commandos was just a front for Saudi money, which was a non starter for the owners.

They have some strict rules around where your money comes from I think. Known moralists they are over there.

 

This might make it all worth it

 

You're really going to stop watching the best players in the world compete? It sucks how it played out, but I know I'm still gonna watch whatever version of that scenario it turns out to be..

 

Think coming out and saying, "Look, we honestly tried to do the right thing but ultimately got worked by the Saudis," would play a lot better with the public and players than picking up LIV's bullshit line about it being about growing the game.

 

Tough day for the PGL guys…

- They came up with this idea of a single, unified global team-based tour
- They had real, non-dirty funding for it
- Pitched it to the PGA Tour and got shunned
- Had their idea stolen by LIV and the Saudis
- Eventually their vision totally plays out between the PGA Tour and the worst possible funding

 

sportwashing works folks!

 

Can we change the icon back? There are a bunch of threads with cash icons.

 

You're gonna watch and bet on it, too.

 

Shorts at Augusta next year is going to be awesome.

 

Stop watching completely? Probably not. Certainly addding it to the list of things that while entertaining on the surface are fucking gross if you look closely, which will cause my interest to wane overall. Sucks that the players that stood up against this are undeserved casualties of it all. Those guys will keep me tuning in from time to time.

 

you dont want to see all these beautiful Trump Organization courses with 6 pga/dp tour stops a year?

 

I make a living gambling on teenagers playing sports, I never claimed to have morals

 

Meanwhile at the PGA headquarters.

 

There’s some mid-level exec at The CW right now wondering if he hit a goldmine

 

Can’t wait for all the jokes from people trying to find the CW for an opening round of the US Open. Gonna be like March madness and tru tv all over again!

 

I’m really curious how they are gonna fine players coming back to the pga because the leagues merged together.

 

That new entity? We’re gonna call it MAX.

 

I mean look at the result. The Saudis won

 

I’m surprised it happened so quickly but no one should be surprised that this is the result. You could see it from a mile away

 

You could only because you’re so smart

 

A single global tour seemed like the inevitable late-state capitalism form of golf. But getting here like this was incredibly non-obvious.

 

the 2024 election will almost certainly decide the merger's fate. Or Trump will 1000% allow it at least, if he were to win.