LIV Golf made a big splash last year with huge payouts to land stars Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and others. When it came to how much dough the controversial Saudi-backed circuit generated, though, the numbers were apparently much smaller.
As in “virtually zero,” according to federal court documents.
After attracting some of the biggest names in golf, LIV, which is bankrolled by the Public Investment Fund, filed a motion Monday in the U.S. District Court for Northern California by its attorneys. revealed that in 2022 there was virtually no revenue from this circuit.
With no TV deal and his tournaments only aired on YouTube and his website last year, that’s hardly surprising.
The motion by LIV comes as part of a lawsuit involving the PGA Tour, with LIV saying the judge named the PIF and its governor Yasser al-Ramayan as plaintiffs in a countersuit against the Saudi-funded tour. Denied Torr’s motion for leave to adduce. LIV, alleging that LIV interfered with its contracts with players. Judge Beth Leibson Freeman has scheduled a case management conference for Feb. 24 to hear arguments from the parties.
As for LIV’s outrageous spending, it was revealed in October that the upstart league spent about $784 million on its first season, COO Atul Khosla told ESPN.
However, this number reportedly did not include player contracts. LIV paid $200 million for Mickelson, a six-time major champion. $150 million for two-time major winner and former world No. 1 Johnson; More than $125 million for DeChambeau, who won the 2020 U.S. Open on Winged Foot. And at least $100 million for reigning players and British Open champion Cameron Smith.
Whether LIV generates any revenue this year remains to be seen.
Last month, the league signed a multi-year deal with The CW Network to carry its tournaments. But the terms of the deal were not disclosed, and The New York Times reported that it could be a revenue-sharing deal versus the usual rights fee the networks pay the leagues to broadcast their events. Pay for.
LIV’s first tournament will be held in Mexico on February 24-26.
Read full article here