LIV Golf has great ambition when building a tournament system for Saudi

The New York Times on December 11 revealed these two bold plans, after extracting a set of confidential documents from a private source.

Accordingly, the company founded by golf legend Greg Norman and CEO has intended to recruit 12 top players in the world, including Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson. It is not clear how or criteria LIV Golf defines the "top group", but in those goals, Woods, Garcia and Stenson have passed the golden period in their careers. Woods alone left open the possibility as well as the time of the rematch after a near-fatal traffic accident in February 2021.

In parallel with the recruitment direction, LIV Golf also established a leadership structure of 10 members to support the development of the arena, including highly prestigious figures in the US such as former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, basketball legend Michael Jordan, former IBM Group CEO Ginni Rometty, former AT&T President Randall Stephenson, and Mark Parker Executive Chairman at Nike.

But after verifying information with the litigants, the New York Times said nine people confirmed they had never received contact from LIV Golf.

In fact, LIV Golf launched in October last year, in June 2022, it opened the Invitational Series with 8 tournaments and then closed the first season at the end of October. The owner only signed a contract with Mickelson, Johnson, Garcia, Stenson but without Woods, McIlroy and 6 original targets. However, they still managed to pull a total of 30 PGA Tour golfers, some young talents, and the rest from the DP World Tour for a list of 48 players each.

While building the Invitational Series, LIV Golf also hired consulting firm McKinsey & Company, which has been a partner of PIF Saudi since the 1970s.

According to McKinsey & Co, to be successful, the new arena must capture the target group of players and resolve conflicts with established tournament systems such as the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, while also attracting sponsors and sponsors. such as media contracts, especially in the television segment.

In the event of a stable operation, McKinsey forecasts LIV Golf will reach sales of at least $1.4 billion by 2028, of which profit before tax and interest is about $320 million. But if the operating environment is unfavorable, the estimated loss through 2028 will be at $355 million. According to the general estimates of the US media, PIF Saudi holds a net worth of about $650 billion, estimated to spend two billion dollars on the golf arena operated by LIV until the end of 2023.

Currently, LIV Golf is at a disadvantage when it has to sue the PGA Tour in the US court, there is no external sponsor or commercial contract with the broadcasters. Their entire opening season is streamed for free on YouTube and their own website.

Invitational Series 2022 bonus budget at $255 million. This cost will be at $ 405 million for 14 new seasons, scheduled to start in March 2023.