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One month faraway from a missed deadline, the PGA Tour is making a “strategic” transfer in hopes of nonetheless going ahead with its deliberate merger with LIV Golf.
On Wednesday, the PGA introduced a brand new $3 billion funding in its deliberate for-profit arm, PGA Tour Enterprises. The funding comes from the Strategic Sports activities Group, a consortium of rich people already embedded within the sports activities world – John Henry and Tom Werner of the Boston Purple Sox, Steve Cohen of the New York Mets, Arthur Clean of the Atlanta Falcons, Wyc Grousbeck of the Boston Celtics and Mark Attanasio of the Milwaukee Brewers.
The money infusion will are available in two elements, with an preliminary $1.5 billion funding following the opposite half at a later time. In accordance with ESPN, Fenway Sports activities Group, which is main SSG after expressing curiosity within the PGA in late 2023, will act as an advisor for PGA Tour Enterprises. This deal additionally permits for a co-investor, which is probably going the place Public Funding Fund from Saudi Arabia comes into play.
Maybe crucial element pertains to the gamers themselves as they’ll have an opportunity to earn fairness into PGA Tour Enterprises. Per ESPN’s Mark Schlabach:
“The PGA Tour stated practically 200 of its members would have entry to a “first-of-its-kind” program that may enable them to turn into fairness holders in PGA Tour Enterprises. The members would collectively have entry to greater than $1.5 billion in fairness grants, which is able to vest over time. The dimensions of grants will likely be decided by a tiered system based mostly on “profession accomplishments, current achievements, future participation and companies and PGA Tour membership standing.”
“The fairness program could be obtainable solely to certified PGA Tour gamers.”
The bold December 31 deadline came and went on the finish of 2023, nevertheless the PGA, LIV and DP World Tour (often known as the European Tour) stated that talks had been being prolonged into the brand new 12 months. In an early January column on Golf.com, James Colgan wrote that the PIF had seen the SSG’s curiosity as a leverage play towards the merger, and that LIV’s poaching of reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm might have sophisticated what had already been delicate talks.
All of that stated, the SSG’s involvement in golf may very well be main assist for the PGA because it nonetheless goals to merge with LIV and the DP World Tour. The deliberate merger drew fiery ire from all corners of the golf world in addition to the political one attributable to ongoing claims of sportswashing towards Saudi Arabia by PIF. Nevertheless, having an funding from a bunch of well-known American businessmen and sports activities house owners might alleviate some issues that the PGA would find yourself awash in “blood cash,” as many critics have stated. The first merger plans nonetheless have to undergo regulatory approval from the U.S. Division of Justice and different businesses.
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