Amid heightened scrutiny of the deal, the PGA Tour defended a controversial deal with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League before senators on Tuesday.
PGA Tour head of operations Ron Price and policy committee independent director Jimmy Dunne testified Tuesday before a subcommittee of inquiry to the Senate Homeland Security Committee, representing the LIV Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. did not attend.
A spokesperson said LIV CEO Greg Norman is out of the country. Subcommittee representatives said they are preparing to hear testimony from Norman and tour golfers in the future.
Dunn and Price said they believed the PGA Tour would benefit most from the proposed deal. Dunn said the Tour would “definitely be intact and even stronger” if a deal is reached and hoped PIF President Yasir Al-Rumayyan would play a “more productive role in golf”. He added that there are. constructive way.
PGA Tour Chief Operating Officer Ron Price at the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, July 11, 2023 in Washington, DC, USA.
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Price also said the tour was not seeking Saudis. “We’re in a real threat situation… $1 billion, $3 billion, maybe $50 billion could get you anywhere else,” he said. “It’s possible, but if you go that route, you’ll end up giving up total control.”
A Senate committee is investigating a deal to consolidate the commercial operations of golf leagues. The proposed deal with LIV raised questions about the future of the tour and player sponsorship.
The tour rakes in billions of dollars from sponsorships and media rights deals to televise the event. The PGA Tour has nine-year deals with Comcast, Paramount Global and Disney starting in 2022, with an annual fee of $700 million. previous report. He also signed a 12-year deal on the PGA Tour. $2 billion deal It acquired the international television rights with Warner Bros. Discovery in 2018, but was reorganized earlier this year.
The framework agreement states that the proposed transaction would create a commercial subsidiary of the PGA Tour, with the new company managing all of the Tour’s commercial assets. The PGA Tour, which will manage the tournament, said it was leading negotiations to reach a final agreement.
Materials obtained by the subcommittee It was revealed in April that UAE-based investment firm PCP Capital Partners had offered PGA Tour policy committee chairman Edward Herlihy and Dunn a long-term deal.
The proposal included the idea of superstars Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy owning a LIV golf team and participating in at least 10 league events. McIlroy is one of the most outspoken critics of the PGA Tour’s LIV deal.
The subcommittee also found that PGA Tour officials requested that Norman and golf marketing agency Performance 54 be fired from LIV Golf after the deal was completed. It is unclear which professional players, including McIlroy and Woods, were aware of the deal before the deal was announced last month, according to the documents.
June’s merger announcement shocked the sports world, with many critics in the Capitol accusing the PIF-funded LIV of “sportswashing,” or extending government influence through sports.
“A regime that killed journalists, jailed and tortured dissidents, fomented the war in Yemen, and supported other terrorist activities, including 9/11. Senator Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) said in a statement: statement.
PGA Tour Director Jimmy Dunn during the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, July 11, 2023 in Washington, DC, USA.
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Concerns over Saudi influence
Critics have also accused the Saudis of “sportwashing,” pointing to links between the Saudi government’s denial of the 9/11 attacks and the murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi. The LIV has faced such criticism since its inception, and protesters have targeted the families of those killed at the event, particularly in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers that day were from Saudi Arabia, where the mastermind behind the attack, Osama bin Laden, was born. U.S. officials have concluded that Saudi citizens helped fund al-Qaeda, but the investigation did not find any Saudi officials complicit in the attacks.
Former President Donald Trump was outraged by 9/11 families for hosting a LIV event on his course. The league announced this week that the final event of the 2023 season will be held in late October. Mr Trump’s Scripture Course The competition in South Florida has moved from Saudi Arabia. Trump is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Blumenthal has criticized the deal, but Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), a prominent member of the subcommittee, was soft-spoken.
PGA TOUR Chief Operating Officer Ron Price (left) and PGA TOUR Director Jimmy Dunn during the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Subcommittee Hearing on Tuesday, July 11, 2023 in Washington, D.C. Mr.
Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“The PGA faces an existential crisis and what they are trying to do to maintain the game and the purity of the game at the highest level,” Johnson said on CNBC’s “Squawkbox” before Tuesday’s hearing. It’s about being there,’ he said.
“Listen, my heart goes out to the families of 9/11. I understand the ‘sports wash’ issue.”I doubt the Saudis have enough billions to wash the blemish of their brutal crimes [Jamal] Kill Khashoggi,” Johnson added, “but the reality is we’re all buying oil. We drive our cars. We’re the ones who fill the safes. [Public] investment funds. I would like Saudi Arabia to invest their oil assets in the US instead of China or Russia, but that is the reality of the world. ”
Earlier on Tuesday, Blumenthal criticized his relationship with Saudi Arabia and how PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan spent a year before the deal was announced. raised his voice about such controversies. Blumenthal, as well as the 9/11 Families United organization, pointed to Monaghan’s comments in a previous interview with CBS Sports and said they had discussed the controversy with Tour players.
“I think you have to live under a rock not to know there is a significant impact,” Monaghan said in an interview. “I would like to ask any player who has left or is considering leaving: ‘Have you ever had to apologize for being on the PGA Tour?’
After the deal was announced, Monaghan said he expected to be called a hypocrite, especially after PGA Tour players expressed shock and anger, and said he was open to criticism. Monahan is on leave due to an unexplained medical condition, but he plans to return to work on Monday.
Tour officials have defended the proposal as the best move forward for golf, especially given LIV’s costly lawsuits and fierce competition, but it remains controversial until Tuesday’s hearing. It did not admit any ties to Saudi Arabia.
“Obviously, we expect a lot of questions about who we’re dealing with,” Dunn said before a subcommittee on Tuesday. He went on to say that 66 of his company friends and colleagues were killed in the September 11 attacks.
Dunn added that if the deal goes through, “you’ll get nothing but the pride of having helped unify the games we love.”
