LIV Golf apparently is still alive.
Since the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund announced in April that it would no longer fund the upstart league after 2026, LIV has been dodging rumors that it was going away. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the league is considering canceling its season-ending, $40-million team championship, scheduled for Aug. 27-30 in Michigan.
“We’ve been told to prepare as though it’s going ahead,” Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith said in a press conference Tuesday. “So we’re expecting it to happen. I’m really unsure, but we had a great year there last year in Detroit, and we’re hoping we get back there.”
Putting those funeral arrangements on hold, LIV CEO Scott O’Neil announced Wednesday that he had secured an investor to keep the league afloat.
“LIV Golf has an agreement in place with a lead investor, signed by the investor and approved by the Board, to anchor the transaction and play a key role in supporting the path forward for the League’s next era, driven by and for the players,’’ he said. “We’re also seeing strong interest from more than a dozen additional parties to potentially serve as minority investors, creating a multi-partner model built for long-term stability and growth.”
O’Neil declined to say who the investor is or who the additional parties were — or any details about the money or what the league could look like in 2027. He did, however, say the next chapter for LIV, “will make our players the majority equity holders in LIV Golf, a first for a major global sports league.”
O’Neil added that the terms of the deal will be finalized in the “coming weeks,” and it should be settled by September.
The New York Post previously reported that LIV had commitments from a team of anchor investors who would create a “financing syndicate” with enough cash to support a reimagined version of LIV.
Meanwhile, LIV players — including most of the 14 team captains — held a 90-minute meeting at President Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, N.J., on Tuesday, reportedly to discuss LIV Golf’s future and how it will survive. LIV’s next tournament starts Thursday at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.
Abraham Ancer, who plays for Torque GC, told GOLF.com that the meeting was positive and the players spent the time “going through the business plan and all that for next year. Other than that, I can’t really say anything.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: LIV Golf has a new investor who will keep league afloat into 2027
Reporting by Nick Pugliese, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Nick Pugliese, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
