i thought it was capped at 48 players, how, if they even care to,do they justify adding new name players while cutting loose those fringe players who signed on?
To be a qualified tour(earn world ranking points) the field needs to be 75 players minimum. So for sure the LIV tour will be getting to 75 players or more.
As point of information two of the LIV events will take place at Trump owned venues, Bedminster and Doral. My guess is that Trump probably decided to host the events at least in part as revenge against the PGA for refusing to schedule a major (the PGA or the US Open) at one his clubs. The tournament at Doral should be a real cash infusion from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into a club that's been losing money for years. Trump's Doral Golf Resort Is Hemorrhaging Money, According to New Report Waiting for a response stating the Trump Derangement Syndrome is real.
The PGA tour and PGA of America (who controls the PGA championship) are separate entities. The USGA runs the U.S. Open (as well as U.S. Amateur, Junior, and the senior and womens versions of all these events) and is also a totally separate entity from the PGA tour. It was the PGA of America who moved their PGA championship away from a Trump property after 1/6, and no doubt that put them in Trumps crosshairs. Don’t think the USGA ever had one on the board. The PGA tour used to host a regular event in Miami at Doral, I think they moved that long before 1/6 because of Trumps general dickery. The Players Championship (known as golf’s 5th major) is the big event put on by the PGA tour, and as of now all LIV players would be banned from the Players championship. Obviously these players are banned from all PGA tour events, including the FedEx Cup playoffs and season ending tour championship. I don’t believe any of the 4 majors has committed to banning players who are otherwise qualified, including the PGA Championship, LIV players who were already qualified still played in this years U.S. Open and British Open, I expect the Masters will probably do the same next year. Though it’s pretty clear they’d all prefer this Saudi funded LIV nonsense to go away.
Interesting. But it’s at 12 teams of 4 now… so you are saying it will need to expand. Does the format matter to qualify for world ranking points?
Well, from what i've heard(very hard to find facts on this), LIV will have to grow to 75 minimum for their tourneys to count towards World Rankings points. But they have to wait a year(filed in May 2022 I believe) for their tour to be recognized. I think they will get somewhere around 80 or so players and cap their tournaments at 75 players with no cuts. Being 54 holes and no cut makes the tour much easier compared to most World Golf tours. Not sure who those ranking points will be alloted to the LIV tour. Lot's of unknowns at this point.
Thanks for replying. Seems guys can get cut from the tour (in general) if the team captains don’t want to pick them in the snake draft. Betting and individual player score “shaving” will be really difficult to address.
likely co-sponsored by your friendly neighborhood oligarch. that should be an interesting week in Miami
I’ve seen speculation they are essentially going to try and merge with the Asian tour to solve the points rankings issues. Arguably that’s the route they should have taken in the first place, rather than just try and buy individual players for a made up tour they should have just bought out the Asian tour and tried to lure top players to individual events (something they already did for years and years with offseason “pay for play” gauranteed $$$ events). The question then is do these American and European players that wanted to “spend more time with their families” go compete in what constitutes the Asian tour schedule? I’m guessing hell no. That is the issue here. They took the $$$ up front. Normally there would be returns on investment needed to justify throwing billions around. But as this is nation-state $$$ the normal rules don’t apply. There is no ROI. In a way, all these players signing up are agents of the Saudi government.
They aren't agents of the Saudi government. I do agree the LIV tour should've just bought the Asian Tour and then lure the pga stars with huge money and only a requirement for 14 events a year. Super simple. Saying the LIV golfers are agents of the Saudi govt is the similar to saying NBA players are China assets. China puts a hell of a lot more money into the NBA than the Saudi's are in the LIV tour.
I suppose this NBA—-> China comparison is inevitable. It really isn’t the same though. The NBA as an institution sanctioned their tour of China. That was capitalism trying to sell itself in China. The Chinese government didn’t directly pay any NBA players (to my knowledge). If anything, the players were acting as agents of Nike and Adidas selling their goods to a huge growth market. In this case the players quite literally are being paid directly by the Saudi government. Do we think they are trying to sell the Saudi Arabian population golf clubs and golf shoes? That seems pretty laughable, also notable several players have LOST sponsorships over their LIV deals. So the Saudi “investment” actually replaced their corporate sponsorship. I’m not saying these players need to necessarily register as foreign agents, other athletes in other sports probably receive indirect govt $$$ playing professionally overseas and it’s not like athletes are likely to be involved in foreign policy or politics. But the Saudi’s obviously expect something in return for their $$$. There isn’t going to be a business ROI, so the R is something else, something intangible.
Might Funny, since the NBA is so forward thinking on human rights issues, why do they do business with China to the tune of 10's of billions of dollars over the next 5 years or so? Those billions from China go to the players. It is the same thing. When/IF we see the LIV players doing "something" for the Saudi's, then we can discuss that. Until then it's pure speculation.
$10’s of billions from the Chinese? There you go making up facts again. The entire NBA revenue is around $8.8 billion. Im not suggesting the NBA has clean hands, every entity should reconsider relations with China. We’ve seen many do just that (including the tennis tour). But there is a not very subtle difference to this LIV tour, which is quite literally buying players with Saudi State $$$. To be comparable it would be like if the Chinese Communist Party announced they were creating a global basketball league and started buying out a bunch of NBA players to compete in this league. Most people would see it as pretty farcical, and rightly point out the players were being straight up acquired by a nation-state with zero subtlety about it.
Shocking that the NBA won't actually divulge how much money they are in bed with China for. Wonder why? Shouldn't have said per year. More like 10's of billions over the next few years. Corrected that statement. NBA Owners' Deep China Investments - Front Office Sports https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/22/nba...hts-increase-and-75-billion-is-the-price.html https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/10/nba-victim-china-economic-might/599773/
Let me know when Lebron and the Commish rip China for their human rights issues. Otherwise it's the same thing as the LIV tour. Taking money from China and keep your mouth shut.
You hit sort of on a point I was going to bring up. With the short term success of LIV I wonder if China would consider purchasing nba players. It's a little different because nba stars already make 20-45 mil a year, guaranteed. But it worked on a small scale with Stephon Marbury, who became a God in China to end his career. If the Chinese govt decided to fund their league, and offered NBA stars 75mil guaranteed contracts, several would most likely go. The groundwork has been laid.
