What about the Saudi Wealth fund?

I appreciate the sarcasm and clever wording here. I wonder what percentage here want to flatout buy players though?

Adding my own to the sarcasm, it's really amazing how many universities accept multi millions from Arab oil countries or the CCP who expect absolutely nothing in return! Gosh that's so nice of them to offer.
Too hot?

 

It’s absolutely about ROI and not propaganda. You literally have it backwards. They are keenly interested in adopting the best part of our culture - entrepreneurial spirit, free markets, innovation. Source: Have co-invested in over a dozen companies with them and led most of the investments. Work with and am friends with most of their lead investment team. And no, they would have little interest in NIL and yes have asked.

 

LOL what's their ROI on Liv Golf? I'm sure they're investing in some things to make money down the road but the golf venture is just billionaires lighting money on fire for pr from millionaire golfers.

 

Venture capital is a ‘get rich slow’ strategy. I was at a board dinner / celebration last week for a company that just reached profitability after eight years of work and six investment rounds. I don’t cover sports or marketing investments so I don’t know what the big picture for LIV is but there is a strategy there and it isn’t to rehabilitate the Saudi brand. Think more along the lines of planning ahead for a world where petrochemicals are no longer the primary source of energy for transportation and where democracy has been green lit as a viable political movement regionally. There’s a reason several multi-billion dollar funds have been formed with SWF money (including another in Santa Clara last month) and Saudi/Egyptian/etc response to Israel cleaning house has been crickets.

 

Negative. They can see the huge profit potential in golf, and expect to make money eventually, if not presently. Perhaps there is some PR benefit for the Saudis, but given how all of that played out, I doubt it. Sure, rich people like to play around with professional sports teams as a hobby of sorts, but history shows that pursuing that hobby is almost always very profitable

It's all about the Benjamins.

 

You mean, like golfing in the sand? Like, where the entire course is one giant sand trap?

 

40 teams split into four 10 team divisions. each team plays the other 9 teams in their division plus one team in each other division. 16 team playoff with the four division winners plus the 12 highest rated teams that didn't win their division.

 

With luck we could play Georgia in Dubai every year.

 

Georgia would find a way to complain that Dubai is not neutral enough and demand the game be played in Atlanta.