{"id":434683,"date":"2025-05-07T03:48:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T03:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=434683"},"modified":"2025-05-07T03:48:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T03:48:20","slug":"liv-golf-spending-nearing-five-billion-dollars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/liv-golf-spending-nearing-five-billion-dollars\/","title":{"rendered":"LIV Golf Spending Nearing Five Billion Dollars"},"content":{"rendered":"

For new businesses, it is normal to either not profit or break even for the first little while of being in business.\u00a0 That is true for sports leagues, too, but usually both businesses and leagues start small and work their way up.\u00a0 LIV Golf had the advantage of being backed by people with deep pockets.\u00a0 However, in April, the total spending on the league is getting dangerously close to five billion.\u00a0 This league has yet to turn a profit<\/a>, while spending is only increasing.\u00a0 Now, what does this mean for LIV, and how much trouble could they be in because of this?<\/span><\/p>\n

LIV Golf’s Spending This Year<\/span><\/h2>\n

For 2025, LIV Golf had to get approval for increased spending.\u00a0 On January 16, LIV started with $330 million, which was increased by $344 million.\u00a0 LIV Golf expects that to increase to at least 1 billion by July, if they need the funding.\u00a0 The current total spending for all of LIV\u2019s existence sits at $4.58 billion.\u00a0 $1.9 billion of that has been needed since January of 2024.\u00a0 It is currently predicted that LIV will cross that $5 billion threshold by the end of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obligations\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

All this funding has been coming from the PIF, and they are, of course, interested in seeing LIV have some success.\u00a0 This latest round of funding has three obligations the league needs to fulfil.\u00a0 These obligations include a minimum number of events, a minimum revenue, and the completion of the Fox Sports deal.\u00a0 That last one can help with the revenue.\u00a0 LIV has long struggled to acquire a competitive number of viewers<\/a> for its events.\u00a0 In an article from Money in Sport<\/a>, it was pointed out that surely the trouble of founding a whole league with all these revenue injections can\u2019t be worth more than just buying an existing league.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe revenue benchmarks beg the question as to why PIF has not done a deal to acquire the DP World Tour.\u00a0 It would have cost a lot less than $4.6 billion, it has already sunk into LIV Golf.\u00a0 The PGA Tour\u2019s existing relationship with the European Tour would not be a serious barrier to getting a deal done if the Tour\u2019s Board of Directors and membership believed the price was right.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Is LIV In Trouble?<\/span><\/h2>\n

At the moment, the PIF is fully invested in LIV and is glad to fund its own league.\u00a0 As for funding issues, the PIF has very deep pockets and can easily tank any blow from operating costs.\u00a0 Just this year, the PIF was trying to acquire the Wentworth Golf Club in London<\/a>.\u00a0 They are more than willing to spend a few billion to keep LIV afloat.\u00a0 However, what if the PIF had a change of heart?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If LIV doesn\u2019t meet the three obligations mentioned earlier, it could spell the end for the league.\u00a0 The biggest concern after that is where the golfers would go?\u00a0 First thought is back to the PGA, but the Tour has a year-long suspension for that.\u00a0 For now, though, LIV is sticking around and will continue its world tour.\u00a0 They just wrapped up in Korea, and they are now looking to continue to Washington DC next.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Kim Hong-Ji\/Reuters via Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For new businesses, it is normal to either not profit or break even for the first little while of being in business.\u00a0 That is true for sports leagues, too, but usually both businesses and leagues start small and work their way up.\u00a0 LIV Golf had the advantage of being backed by people with deep pockets.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":434684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,200],"tags":[184],"class_list":["post-434683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-liv-golf","tag-pif"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434685,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434683\/revisions\/434685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}