I think The Kingdom will accept Jordan's challenge, and not in a PGA Tour friendly way. Good times!
SSGs investment means it's likely much easier for a PIF investment to get through regulatory, since they would no longer have as much influence over the TOUR. We'll see how it all plays out.Speith is saying that this deal means that PGA wouldn’t need to partner with LIV:
https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/39431706/jordan-spieth-says-pif-alliance-not-needed-ssg-pga-tour-deal
Seems like it could be a negotiating tactic.
I think this seems like the case, but viewership for the Zurich (team play) is not higher than other formats. Quite the opposite.I think this is probably something close to what the final product will be if they get the PIF Investment. There will be a sclaed back Tour for the elite guys. Probably looks something similar to the signature events this year, maybe spread out a bit and at new locations.
Then the non-signature weeks will look similar to what they do now and the mules will try to qualify for the elite Tour those weeks. LIV or some sort of team component sprinkled in throughout the fall or other down periods but will co-exist. Players who went to LIV won't get equity in the new company but will be able to play both. One big happy family. Except for the mules, probably.
As for the TV product, I've always thought they should just put ads on the screen during coverage to cut down on the actual breaks. Feels like it wouldn't be overly intrusive to have a Titleist logo on the screen somewhere during play. It'd be annoying at first but then everyone would get used to it and theoretically could reduce the commercial time (althought knowing them they'll take this, add the on-screen advertising, and maintain the same ad load).
By the same token, if billionaires agreed it's worth $12B and did so by investing $1.5-3B of their money, you have to believe they intend to make money off of that, which means selling "shares" to someone.Generally speaking, when a bunch of wealthy businessmen decide to give "shares worth X" to a bunch of people who know nothing about business.... I'm highly skeptical.
Can the shares be sold? Who came up with this "12B valuation"?
Seems like a way to stop the talent drain and try to convince the players they are getting something of value without actually paying them anything (aside from prize $ of course)
Maybe I misunderstood the press release (or your post), but it doesn't look like they are selling any shares.By the same token, if billionaires agreed it's worth $12B and did so by investing $1.5-3B of their money, you have to believe they intend to make money off of that, which means selling "shares" to someone.
That's just it, it's not everything. I mostly watch things on HBO, Prime, and Disney and there are no ads. Then I turn on something like PGA Tour golf and it's sooo many ads. A quarter to a third of the content is ads? It's jarring. I was obviously used to it years ago but now it stands out because I'm becoming accustomed to not seeing them.This is a topic for another thread probably but this has been at the forefront of my brain recently as well. EVERYTHING I watch or consume now is just bombarded with ads. And ridiculous, low quality ads for shit that shouldn't be advertised. Whether it's terrible ads on Twitter that I don't even want to share, ads for drugs/insurance/deodorant constantly on YoutubeTV, or ads for god knows what on Youtube and other streaming apps. It's just a nonstop barrage and really has me wondering why I'm bothering to consume anything anymore.
In the past at least the stuff in commercials was normal, like cars, beverages, food, etc. I didn't like it, but I understood and they weren't terrible and didn't feel like I was under siege. Now it's everywhere, or at least it just feels that way. Maybe I'm getting old but it hit home for me like a month ago and I can't get over it.
Rant over.
Shares in private companies given to key stakeholders isn't really new or all that obscure. When the shares vest, they can sell them to whoever is willing to buy them for whatever they are willing to pay. My point was that a bunch of billionaires either believe that number will be higher than it is today, or they don't mind losing a lot of money.Maybe I misunderstood the press release (or your post), but it doesn't look like they are selling any shares.
Players seem to get shares with sweat equity. Stay here for X years and then get shares that vest over time. Will the shares have as much value as they claim? I suppose time will tell.
For the record, it's a common playbook in private equity take overs of medical practices (plus many other things I'm sure). Perhaps I'm projecting and this isn't actually what is going on with the PGA. But in general, these players are probably pretty naive and getting taken advantage of to some degree.
Having said that, at the moment they don't really own anything and live off of purses. So I suppose anything these monopoly $ shares are worth in the future, even if it's less than they are told, is just a bonus.
They presumably only get the shares if they stay on the Tour and don't go to LIV, right? They vest over time if they keep playing on the PGA tour. Call it whatever you want, but it's based on their continued participation on the PGA Tour and not jumping ship.Also, for clarity, it is not sweat equity in the PGA TOUR. The players are not labor. The TOUR exists only to service the players.
This overstates the liquidity of such arrangements but your point is generally true. These shares often come with significant transfer restrictions including rights of first refusal or other qualification criteria.When the shares vest, they can sell them to whoever is willing to buy them for whatever they are willing to pay.
If executed well this will be a nice addition for golf coverage.LIV has partnered with Google and will be rolling out a "Any Shot, Any Time" product that will allow viewers to watch any shot during a broadcast.
View: https://twitter.com/JoshACarpenter/status/1753034003437785098?s=20
Agreed. I watch a lot of it and, like @Pablo's TB Lover notes, a lot of these folks do a good job of putting together entire rounds in under an hour, which is manageable. To say nothing of watching some of the stupid challenge videos these folks cook up.I very much like Bryson's YouTube channel. I think the PGA Tour and the announcers / media did him dirty with their coverage of him.
Also watching Rick Shiels fail at literally everything he attempts to do is fun. He still believes he can accomplish something, anything though. Amazing.
Thinking about it I've probably watched more YouTube golf content than PGA Tour golf content over the past year.