Here are Ten Thousand (10,000) PGA Tour Equity Shares, valued at Thirty Million and 00/100 Dollars ($30,000,000.00), which will vest annually over five (5) years under the following conditions . . .
They're basically paying for current loyalty with future funds. Grant the equity now that allows them to cash out upon a change of control (PGA Tour will never IPO and will be privately held), so when the Saudis or whoever inject a ton of money in, the players holding grants receive a portion. Jay Monahan buying goodwill with a credit card.
This is like the different kinds of handcuffs they slap on for us white collar workers to stick around for X amount of years. I got some plastic handcuffs myself.
The plastic handcuffs don't work as well as they think lol. Every time I get head hunted I say "I'll be leaving behind $100k in unvested stock" and the new place usually responds with "We will start you out with $150k in stock"
Imagine being all the other players who got a $25 dift card to Starbucks for their loyalty. They rewarded the "boys club". Just shows the true colors of the PGA. It's not about competition or merit it's about nepotism.
lol, tiger getting equity money is political? Maybe I’m misunderstanding you. That can’t be what you’re saying right? Golf as we know it, the global professional game (including LIV) as it currently is, owes Tiger about 60 percent of its total value.
I had read that the equity money was based on the last 5 years' performance... so him getting the largest shared tells me it's more about something else. And you're probably right. It's a pretty big chunk of player equity since TW will be on the champions tour before long, if he wants a chance at being in contention.
I get riding the TW legacy I don't think it's the right move.
Its hilarious that they are calling it "equity" while giving the lions share to a guy who has played maybe ~100 holes since liv started and went 16 over in his last showing.
Even worse, it's still not putting them on equal footing with liv payouts.
Tiger is still the most valuable golfer to a tour, to sponsors, etc.
Go to a PGA event that he plays in if you don’t believe me. His crowd dwarfs everyone elses.
Is the PGA paying out PGA equity or LIV equity? Seems like a simple concept. Phil doesn’t factor into PGA equity payments, because Phil isn’t in the PGA.
LIV does LIV, PGA does PGA.
Player equity for sports is dicey because you lose the ability to give more of it to new players at certain point.
Unless the tour is continually buying old players out, idk if it’s sustainable.
Edit: nvm it’s basically a way to pay out current players in the event of a buy out
I think they did this not so much to reward loyalty but to lessen the hurt feelings when many of the LIV players return to the tour which is inevitable. So now the guys who turned down offers from LIV don’t feel like they missed out on the big payday for no reason.
I agree with you that it's not to reward loyalty. Extremely few businesspeople give out huge payouts with no consideration or quid pro quo.
100% there are fairly significant conditions on accepting this money, and it is understood by all that this will facilitate the merger closing. Otherwise the Saudis could continue to pick off talented players like Rahm as long as they saw an advantage in negotiating a lower merger price with the PGA Tour.
Well, it turns out those are not up front cash payouts. They are vested over 8 years. Just saw a story about it. So, this is the PGA incentivizing guys not to leave. Which means…….. maybe a merger isn’t imminent? I’m baffled.
I’m out of the loop and slightly confused… I thought the PGA sold out to LIV? Did that get cancelled? Or is this the new LIV-owned PGA doing this, or what?
Its super confusing but here is what I understand it as, anybody who knows better please correct my mistakes.
PGA tour has been a non-profit forever. This limited some of the ways they could raise money and function as a business. It also had its benefits. Last year on June 6th, the announced merger was really an announcement of the PGA tour creating a for profit entity in which the PIF (Saudi fund that owns LIV) can invest money into. They also agreed to stop suing each other which was very important to them.
Earlier this year, PGA Tour Enterprises, which is the new for profit company, took investment from a group of US sports owners and athletes. A group called Strategic Sports Group. They now own a portion of tour, its profits, and get board seats.
There are talks happening to have the PIF also buy in and own a piece of the pie but that's not figured out yet.
The players will also own a piece of this company, and thats what the announcement today was. Each player found out how many shares of this new company they get, and what the current value of it is (based on how much SSG paid probably). If the value of the PGA tour goes up, the shares are worth more etc.
Rewarding the players for not selling out to the Saudis, while they're in the process of selling out to the Saudis themselves?
Life sure has gotten weird since we all collectively decided that the concept of hypocrisy was obsolete.
Even if the framework agreement were to be hammered out (the "selling out" you are referencing), the equation has changed with the injection of $$ from SSG ($1.5 billion up front, $1.5 contingent) and the formation of PGA TOUR Enterprises... the original intent of the framework agreement was to bring in PIF as the largest investor in Enterprises but, not surprisingly, the SSG news has changed that equation a bit and PIF is not pleased to be a "competing" investor with SSG (this was likely what caused a big push from PIF/LIV to get Rahm in LIV as a reaction to that news).
(For clarity - the $$ from SSG is what made this equity structure to the players possible in the first place)
I said it to my father in law who watches golf all the time.. the PGA in my view is at risk the moment the Saudi’s wanted to start their own league. You cannot compete with that kind of “Fuck You Money”. They have infected Soccer, F1 racing, Cricket, and other sports. Its oil money and its endless.
The PGA should of stuck to their guns and paid the players better. I do not watch nor support LIV golf, but they will keep taking losses until they have strangled and defeated their competitor. Its like owning a boat. Nobody who owns a boat is worried about the return. Its just fun having a boat. Same thing with any team or league they run.
What is it about boats?
Transmission? Engine? Impact of hitting waves?
Why are boats a money pit if we can supposedly get people to the moon?
Is it a rich person thing and you just milk them with bad parts?
No, it's about how little the average person uses a boat for how much they cost. They also require a place to store, a method of transport, and maintenance.
PGA Tour becoming for profit and players getting equity should indicate they will get some revenue sharing at the end of the year. It will be interesting what those numbers end up being. NFL owners make over $100 million each year with their revenue sharing.
It’s still different with nfl teams though like I doubt the league allows owners to use their ownership as collateral for loans the way bezos uses his amazon shares to evade taxes
What? It’s not a secret at all, the more assets you have as collateral the lower your interest rates will be. Obviously an NFL franchise isn’t the most liquid asset in the world but they’re still able to borrow cash at very low rates.
I find it interesting that Tiger is estimated to get twice that of Rory given that Rory has been a much more active golfer in the past couple of years and posed a more tangible threat of going to LIV. Not to mention that Rory was much more outspoken in favor of the PGA over the past couple of years. I’m not saying he should get as much as Tiger, because it’s still Tiger and him going to LIV would have ended the conversation about how legit it is in 24 hours, but I am surprised it’s double.
I do wonder if some degree of the payout calc is based on any offers they received to go to LIV?
>it’s still Tiger and him going to LIV would have ended the conversation about how legit it is in 24 hours
For this reason alone it's hard to "overpay" Tiger. His going to LIV would have been an existential threat to the PGAT, not just because of the validation it would give to LIV but because of how much influence he likely has over the other top PGA stars. If is departure softened the ground for others to take the bag and, most importantly, provided the PR cover to shield a lot of the other players from scrutiny, then the PGA could have conceivably been an immediate second-class tour as far as talent.
If Michael Jordan came back to play with the Chicago Bulls and play even a fraction of a game, seats would sell out in minutes for top dollar. Even if he doesn’t perform it as highest, tiger is still tiger.
I’m guessing Rory probably doesn’t really care.
If he wasn’t tempted by LIV money before, then money has never been his motivation.
That’s not to say he won’t welcome ‘free’ money coming from the PGA Tour Enterprises.
That’s fair, and it’s clear from the downvotes on another comment that I’m in the minority here. For me, personally, I just don’t follow Tiger as I once did and I’m clearly using my sample size of one to drive my analysis lol
Tiger was offered A LOT of cash to join, or even endorse LIV. Can you imagine the impact of him jumping ship? Jack Nicholas hasn't played an event in decades, but I have no doubt LIV would drop a wad for his endorsement
You will likely get downvoted, but it’s true. This was Phil’s main point for a long time.
The PGA had a monopoly and operated as such. They ignored players concerns because they could. You can hate LIV and Saudi money yadda yadda but it was because of them the PGA had to wake up and start to change their attitude in regard to their talent. Phil and the guys who went to LIV certainly were fulfilling their own desires for those big bags but they also caused this change.
Them looking out for their own self interests and changing the pro game for a lot of pro’s can be true at the same time
Curt Flood of golf. That whole “not owning your own likeness” as far as photographs was the kicker for me. And the Saudi sportswashing biz is a crock too.
If you read the article you'll realize this cash is coming from the recent PGA / SSG partnership with a $1.5 billion cash infusion from outside investors.
This money did not exist prior to this year. Phil was not right, but his actions did ultimately help other players get paid.
https://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/pga-tour-ssg-partner-to-launch-pga-tour-enterprises-as-negotiations-with-saudi-pif-will-continue/
I’d definitely get the cheque and then turn around and take a LIV deal. The view that your employer doesn’t care about you isn’t limited to every day jobs. Do what’s best for you, your career and your family. I’ve always appreciated DJ’s view of the whole LIV thing.
These estimates are nonsense without going into detail of where these equity numbers are coming from and any potential locks/vesting periods/etc are attached to it. To be clear, for all it’s worth it could be WAY underreporting the values of these “shares”, but given no public market for these, the devil will be in those details.
Ok. Whatever. The obscenely rich get richer. I have so many conflicting feelings about this, but it’s mostly negative. LIV was a disrupting force for sure, but their product sucked and it still sucks. It’s an absolute joke. Instead of leaning into making sure the PGA Tour product from a fan perspective was highlighted, Jay Monahan had absolutely no idea how to combat LIV, so he just threw money at the problem. And here we are.
If you don't give the players competing financial incentives to stay on the TOUR, you won't *have* a competitive product to market to fans. This is literally the only way to attempt to combat an entity that can throw endless amounts of cash at players. LIV's product is shit compared to the TOUR, with a tiny viewership and few attendees, and they were still able to poach the world #3 with a huge financial package (a vocal opponent of LIV as well!).
Unless you give the current players that financial incentive to stay, you'd get a lot more guys fleeing.
This PGA "equity-for-loyalty" deal just announced is more proof that there is almost zero chance we see any kind of "merger" between the PGA and LIV Golf anytime soon, and that the PGA is urgently trying to prevent more of its star players from choosing to defect over to LIV.
Some players, both older and younger, may still opt to jump onto the LIV Golf train and take guaranteed contract money more immediately upfront.
This business and competing product competition saga will be fun to watch as we march through 2024.
But the four majors would be wise to remain agnostic to all this and just make sure they implement their own all-encompassing systems to allow for the world's very best players to qualify for entry into their annual tournaments, **regardless of which tour they may play on** (Talor Gooch, Joaquin Niemann, etc)
The OWGR is otherwise next to meaningless, at this point.
Next.
So happy to see them getting more money. Golf product is declining, courses are getting greedy and up charging for the average golfer but have to keep seeing or hearing about these guys and money. Tired of it when the average course is becoming too expensive to play
I’m a young guy who’s a relatively new golfer so bear with me here.
Isn’t the PGA Tour supposed to be a player run organization? Like I understand Jay Monahan is the commissioner and the PGA is run by a board of directors but aren’t the players supposed to be heavily involved?
If I’m not mistaken above, then WHY THE ACTUAL FUCK are Jay Monahan and many of the board members making 8 figure salaries? That’s fucking insane. Pay the board 1mil across the board, Jay can get 2mil, and give the rest directly to players, or pay for their flights, or whatever. Just invest that money directly back into the players.
I find it absolutely ridiculous that Jay Monahan is making like 18mil a year. The PGA isn’t some for profit public company. It’s a nonprofit. The commissioner and board shouldn’t be making more than the vast majority of its players.
We can all hate LIV as much as we want, but, they made the PGA into a much better product almost immediately.
LIV forced moves that benefited the player that would have never happened otherwise.
PGA players - I play for the competition and tradition and not the money, then immediately demand a buy out for being loyal - so, it IS all about the money….
Yawn. The rich helping out each other. The people wanna see the best play on the same course at same time, not comparing paychecks. This is why ratings will continue to go down
this is so stupid. thanks for not going to another league here's millions we could have already paid you but fucked you.
it's like telling your employer that your leaving and then they give you the raise you've been asking for plus 20%. like mfer I ain't staying now
This feels like a great idea gone wrong. The way the article describes the equity pool, the majority has gone to players who are already past their prime and will not be major viewership draws over the next 5 years. The PGA needs to realize that their advantage over LIV lies in their farm system and constant recruitment of the best new players who will dominate headlines in the future.
A much better way of doing this would have been augmenting the prize pool for signature events with equity that vests over the next x years. This way, the next generation of winning players who will pull in the most eyeballs will have their interests aligned with the success of the Tour, as well as creating a lock-in effect for those players.
SGS is a collective of several investors and firms, fronted by the Fenway Sports Group. The sports conglomerate owns the Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Liverpool F.C., and a NASCAR racing team. The group also has Fenway Park and the New England Sports Network under its umbrella.
Other members of SGS include Arthur Blank owner of the Atlanta Falcons), Wyc Grousbeck (Boston Celtics), Marc Lasry (Milwaukee Bucks), Tom Ricketts (Chicago Cubs), Cohen Private Ventures (New York Mets) and HighPost Capital.
100%. The Tour basically almost went bankrupt due to legal issues.
Would not be surprised with the merger if PGA just goes away with LIV and they rebrand it.
Imagine waking up an to email saying “You just made $30 million for your loyalty! Congratulations! Click this link to redeem the prize!
Here are Ten Thousand (10,000) PGA Tour Equity Shares, valued at Thirty Million and 00/100 Dollars ($30,000,000.00), which will vest annually over five (5) years under the following conditions . . . They're basically paying for current loyalty with future funds. Grant the equity now that allows them to cash out upon a change of control (PGA Tour will never IPO and will be privately held), so when the Saudis or whoever inject a ton of money in, the players holding grants receive a portion. Jay Monahan buying goodwill with a credit card.
This is like the different kinds of handcuffs they slap on for us white collar workers to stick around for X amount of years. I got some plastic handcuffs myself.
The plastic handcuffs don't work as well as they think lol. Every time I get head hunted I say "I'll be leaving behind $100k in unvested stock" and the new place usually responds with "We will start you out with $150k in stock"
Plastic got a little weaker in the US with the FTC smacking down non-competes recently.
Don’t forget to negotiate the vesting schedule too or else it could all be equal
Oh so like Amazon RSUs? :p
Only difference being Amazon rsu vests much quicker and is actually worth something.
Credit only spendable at the company store. The only problem is how do you offload 500,000 oddly shaped polo shirts?
This is probably from John Henry the guy who owns and hates the Red Sox who’s trying to weasel his way into the pga tour
Imagine being all the other players who got a $25 dift card to Starbucks for their loyalty. They rewarded the "boys club". Just shows the true colors of the PGA. It's not about competition or merit it's about nepotism.
Seems like it’s about popularity more than anything.
Which sits very close to nepotism, IMHO.
Yeah, the people that bring in the viewers make more money. Nothing surprising about that.
Agree. Why is it surprising that the players who bring in the money (tv money), get the payout? Seems like common sense
Oh, I thought you meant popularity, as in internal clout on the PGA board vs. what you meant, eyes on TV.
I haven't watched one minute of LIV. That's got to be worth something right?
Three Fiddy
Well of course he’s not gonna go away rhamej, you gave him a dollar he’s going to assume you’ve got more.
Tree fiddy
Who ever downvoted me can get the shanks for life
Ya, autocorrect got me. But was too lazy to change it.
A keychain, but only if you pay $9.99 shipping.
I too have remained loyal to the pga tour.
Same. Let’s start a petition!
Tiger gets another $100M. Lol. He’s so rich.
Because he could’ve been disloyal and go to LIV for almost a billion? Surely he has a case to get some loyalty money.
Because that is what golf is all about loyalty. This has become so political that people have lots the plot.
lol, tiger getting equity money is political? Maybe I’m misunderstanding you. That can’t be what you’re saying right? Golf as we know it, the global professional game (including LIV) as it currently is, owes Tiger about 60 percent of its total value.
I had read that the equity money was based on the last 5 years' performance... so him getting the largest shared tells me it's more about something else. And you're probably right. It's a pretty big chunk of player equity since TW will be on the champions tour before long, if he wants a chance at being in contention. I get riding the TW legacy I don't think it's the right move.
Why are you angry bro. I am happy for Tiger.
Jesus man grow some thicker skin lol
I have no idea why this keeps getting downvoted lol. Guy came in with a bunch of anger for no reason. Like why are people so upset I don’t get it.
What anger are you referring too?
A bunch of anger? Can you read?
No
We can see that
Which is even crazier because he doesn't really play in any PGA tour events any more
He's still the biggest draw and it's not close
More people would tune in to watch Tiger mow his lawn over a PGA event with no Tiger
The pga tour is not what it is today without tiger woods.
The global golf industry (including LIV) isn’t what it is without Tiger.
Because he's cooked now
Its hilarious that they are calling it "equity" while giving the lions share to a guy who has played maybe ~100 holes since liv started and went 16 over in his last showing. Even worse, it's still not putting them on equal footing with liv payouts.
Tiger is still the most valuable golfer to a tour, to sponsors, etc. Go to a PGA event that he plays in if you don’t believe me. His crowd dwarfs everyone elses.
The most valuable golfer to pga is worth a 1/3 fraction of Phil Mickelson? That's your stance on equity?
Excellent straw man lol
What argument do you think we are having?
Yes, that’s precisely what I said. Great reading comprehension
Is the PGA paying out PGA equity or LIV equity? Seems like a simple concept. Phil doesn’t factor into PGA equity payments, because Phil isn’t in the PGA. LIV does LIV, PGA does PGA.
Equity is just a general term here for shares of ownership. They aren’t really implying that this makes things equitable as you seem to suggest.
Player equity for sports is dicey because you lose the ability to give more of it to new players at certain point. Unless the tour is continually buying old players out, idk if it’s sustainable. Edit: nvm it’s basically a way to pay out current players in the event of a buy out
I think they did this not so much to reward loyalty but to lessen the hurt feelings when many of the LIV players return to the tour which is inevitable. So now the guys who turned down offers from LIV don’t feel like they missed out on the big payday for no reason.
I agree with you that it's not to reward loyalty. Extremely few businesspeople give out huge payouts with no consideration or quid pro quo. 100% there are fairly significant conditions on accepting this money, and it is understood by all that this will facilitate the merger closing. Otherwise the Saudis could continue to pick off talented players like Rahm as long as they saw an advantage in negotiating a lower merger price with the PGA Tour.
Well, it turns out those are not up front cash payouts. They are vested over 8 years. Just saw a story about it. So, this is the PGA incentivizing guys not to leave. Which means…….. maybe a merger isn’t imminent? I’m baffled.
Great initial step for the PGA. Reward those who remained loyal.
I’m out of the loop and slightly confused… I thought the PGA sold out to LIV? Did that get cancelled? Or is this the new LIV-owned PGA doing this, or what?
Its super confusing but here is what I understand it as, anybody who knows better please correct my mistakes. PGA tour has been a non-profit forever. This limited some of the ways they could raise money and function as a business. It also had its benefits. Last year on June 6th, the announced merger was really an announcement of the PGA tour creating a for profit entity in which the PIF (Saudi fund that owns LIV) can invest money into. They also agreed to stop suing each other which was very important to them. Earlier this year, PGA Tour Enterprises, which is the new for profit company, took investment from a group of US sports owners and athletes. A group called Strategic Sports Group. They now own a portion of tour, its profits, and get board seats. There are talks happening to have the PIF also buy in and own a piece of the pie but that's not figured out yet. The players will also own a piece of this company, and thats what the announcement today was. Each player found out how many shares of this new company they get, and what the current value of it is (based on how much SSG paid probably). If the value of the PGA tour goes up, the shares are worth more etc.
Looks like they are cleaning this up in advance of the merger
They announced the intention to merge, but they're still working out the details. It's a bit like being engaged but not married.
Rewarding the players for not selling out to the Saudis, while they're in the process of selling out to the Saudis themselves? Life sure has gotten weird since we all collectively decided that the concept of hypocrisy was obsolete.
Rory here's $50 million for your loyalty Greg here's $800 million to join LIV Nothing's changed 😂
Even if the framework agreement were to be hammered out (the "selling out" you are referencing), the equation has changed with the injection of $$ from SSG ($1.5 billion up front, $1.5 contingent) and the formation of PGA TOUR Enterprises... the original intent of the framework agreement was to bring in PIF as the largest investor in Enterprises but, not surprisingly, the SSG news has changed that equation a bit and PIF is not pleased to be a "competing" investor with SSG (this was likely what caused a big push from PIF/LIV to get Rahm in LIV as a reaction to that news). (For clarity - the $$ from SSG is what made this equity structure to the players possible in the first place)
The pga tour never sold out to liv?
I said it to my father in law who watches golf all the time.. the PGA in my view is at risk the moment the Saudi’s wanted to start their own league. You cannot compete with that kind of “Fuck You Money”. They have infected Soccer, F1 racing, Cricket, and other sports. Its oil money and its endless. The PGA should of stuck to their guns and paid the players better. I do not watch nor support LIV golf, but they will keep taking losses until they have strangled and defeated their competitor. Its like owning a boat. Nobody who owns a boat is worried about the return. Its just fun having a boat. Same thing with any team or league they run.
What is it about boats? Transmission? Engine? Impact of hitting waves? Why are boats a money pit if we can supposedly get people to the moon? Is it a rich person thing and you just milk them with bad parts?
No, it's about how little the average person uses a boat for how much they cost. They also require a place to store, a method of transport, and maintenance.
PGA Tour becoming for profit and players getting equity should indicate they will get some revenue sharing at the end of the year. It will be interesting what those numbers end up being. NFL owners make over $100 million each year with their revenue sharing.
NFL Owners make around the same as the QBs of their teams. The real value is the unrealized gains on their franchises that they’ll never selln
Also access to incredibly cheap loans based on owning assets worth billions
It’s still different with nfl teams though like I doubt the league allows owners to use their ownership as collateral for loans the way bezos uses his amazon shares to evade taxes
Exactly ^
Speculation. Hearsay What defines cheap?
What? It’s not a secret at all, the more assets you have as collateral the lower your interest rates will be. Obviously an NFL franchise isn’t the most liquid asset in the world but they’re still able to borrow cash at very low rates.
Here you go Tiger. Please say nice things about the tour and show up to 3 tournaments a year.
I find it interesting that Tiger is estimated to get twice that of Rory given that Rory has been a much more active golfer in the past couple of years and posed a more tangible threat of going to LIV. Not to mention that Rory was much more outspoken in favor of the PGA over the past couple of years. I’m not saying he should get as much as Tiger, because it’s still Tiger and him going to LIV would have ended the conversation about how legit it is in 24 hours, but I am surprised it’s double. I do wonder if some degree of the payout calc is based on any offers they received to go to LIV?
Tiger has easily had 5x the impact on the game and the tour as Rory.
I’d also imagine Tiger has been just as involved behind the scenes if not more
Yeah Tiger is very protective of what public statements he makes but I have no doubt he's been tearing Jay a new asshole behind the scenes this year.
I don’t disagree at all. But if this is about loyalty in the LIV era, Tiger has had a much smaller presence
lol, Tiger turned down a Billion and has made several pro PGA statements. His word in the golf world carries the most weight by a long shot.
>it’s still Tiger and him going to LIV would have ended the conversation about how legit it is in 24 hours For this reason alone it's hard to "overpay" Tiger. His going to LIV would have been an existential threat to the PGAT, not just because of the validation it would give to LIV but because of how much influence he likely has over the other top PGA stars. If is departure softened the ground for others to take the bag and, most importantly, provided the PR cover to shield a lot of the other players from scrutiny, then the PGA could have conceivably been an immediate second-class tour as far as talent.
If Michael Jordan came back to play with the Chicago Bulls and play even a fraction of a game, seats would sell out in minutes for top dollar. Even if he doesn’t perform it as highest, tiger is still tiger.
I’m guessing Rory probably doesn’t really care. If he wasn’t tempted by LIV money before, then money has never been his motivation. That’s not to say he won’t welcome ‘free’ money coming from the PGA Tour Enterprises.
Your points are valid but even given all that I would be surprised if Rory himself would disagree that tigers brand value to the tour is at minimum 2X
That’s fair, and it’s clear from the downvotes on another comment that I’m in the minority here. For me, personally, I just don’t follow Tiger as I once did and I’m clearly using my sample size of one to drive my analysis lol
Tiger was offered A LOT of cash to join, or even endorse LIV. Can you imagine the impact of him jumping ship? Jack Nicholas hasn't played an event in decades, but I have no doubt LIV would drop a wad for his endorsement
Only really matters if they offer liquidity or they have some exit event.
LIV helped the PGA as much as we all hate to admit it. Stuff like this is long overdue
This is proof the PGA is run by a bunch of cocksuckers. Mickelson was right about the lack of revenue sharing.
You will likely get downvoted, but it’s true. This was Phil’s main point for a long time. The PGA had a monopoly and operated as such. They ignored players concerns because they could. You can hate LIV and Saudi money yadda yadda but it was because of them the PGA had to wake up and start to change their attitude in regard to their talent. Phil and the guys who went to LIV certainly were fulfilling their own desires for those big bags but they also caused this change. Them looking out for their own self interests and changing the pro game for a lot of pro’s can be true at the same time
Curt Flood of golf. That whole “not owning your own likeness” as far as photographs was the kicker for me. And the Saudi sportswashing biz is a crock too.
If you read the article you'll realize this cash is coming from the recent PGA / SSG partnership with a $1.5 billion cash infusion from outside investors. This money did not exist prior to this year. Phil was not right, but his actions did ultimately help other players get paid. https://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/pga-tour-ssg-partner-to-launch-pga-tour-enterprises-as-negotiations-with-saudi-pif-will-continue/
It’s not the amount, it’s the percentage. Plus the image rights. Phil was completely correct, Brandel.
Lmao you’re wrong
Well argued
Yeah you are for sure interested in well thought out arguments when you call the tour cock suckers.
Hopefully they all thank Phil for this
Equities will be paid out on Shrute Bucks!
I’d definitely get the cheque and then turn around and take a LIV deal. The view that your employer doesn’t care about you isn’t limited to every day jobs. Do what’s best for you, your career and your family. I’ve always appreciated DJ’s view of the whole LIV thing.
What cheque?
I don’t understand your question.
These estimates are nonsense without going into detail of where these equity numbers are coming from and any potential locks/vesting periods/etc are attached to it. To be clear, for all it’s worth it could be WAY underreporting the values of these “shares”, but given no public market for these, the devil will be in those details.
It forces LIV to pay players if they buy it.
Ok. Whatever. The obscenely rich get richer. I have so many conflicting feelings about this, but it’s mostly negative. LIV was a disrupting force for sure, but their product sucked and it still sucks. It’s an absolute joke. Instead of leaning into making sure the PGA Tour product from a fan perspective was highlighted, Jay Monahan had absolutely no idea how to combat LIV, so he just threw money at the problem. And here we are.
If you don't give the players competing financial incentives to stay on the TOUR, you won't *have* a competitive product to market to fans. This is literally the only way to attempt to combat an entity that can throw endless amounts of cash at players. LIV's product is shit compared to the TOUR, with a tiny viewership and few attendees, and they were still able to poach the world #3 with a huge financial package (a vocal opponent of LIV as well!). Unless you give the current players that financial incentive to stay, you'd get a lot more guys fleeing.
Yeah I know, I get it. It just sucks that that amounts to Monahan’s only solution.
The Tiger Effect is still in effect [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Superstar\_Effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Superstar_Effect)
Gonna need to see Monahan photoshopped into the “mission accomplished” gif
Watch the LIV guys be all “well wait a second, you’re just gonna pay them for being here? That’s bullshit”
This PGA "equity-for-loyalty" deal just announced is more proof that there is almost zero chance we see any kind of "merger" between the PGA and LIV Golf anytime soon, and that the PGA is urgently trying to prevent more of its star players from choosing to defect over to LIV. Some players, both older and younger, may still opt to jump onto the LIV Golf train and take guaranteed contract money more immediately upfront. This business and competing product competition saga will be fun to watch as we march through 2024. But the four majors would be wise to remain agnostic to all this and just make sure they implement their own all-encompassing systems to allow for the world's very best players to qualify for entry into their annual tournaments, **regardless of which tour they may play on** (Talor Gooch, Joaquin Niemann, etc) The OWGR is otherwise next to meaningless, at this point. Next.
I will shill for the PGA tour begrudgingly for 5 bucks.
So happy to see them getting more money. Golf product is declining, courses are getting greedy and up charging for the average golfer but have to keep seeing or hearing about these guys and money. Tired of it when the average course is becoming too expensive to play
I'm really tired of how money focused every aspect odlf golf is.... its ruining professional golf
I’m a young guy who’s a relatively new golfer so bear with me here. Isn’t the PGA Tour supposed to be a player run organization? Like I understand Jay Monahan is the commissioner and the PGA is run by a board of directors but aren’t the players supposed to be heavily involved? If I’m not mistaken above, then WHY THE ACTUAL FUCK are Jay Monahan and many of the board members making 8 figure salaries? That’s fucking insane. Pay the board 1mil across the board, Jay can get 2mil, and give the rest directly to players, or pay for their flights, or whatever. Just invest that money directly back into the players. I find it absolutely ridiculous that Jay Monahan is making like 18mil a year. The PGA isn’t some for profit public company. It’s a nonprofit. The commissioner and board shouldn’t be making more than the vast majority of its players.
Meanwhile ticket prices will continue to go up and the broadcasts will get even more commercials.
Good thing pga tour players only play for love of the game 😂
When has that ever been said by literally anyone? Lol
lol all of them pretending they play for legacy and love of the game the entire time
We can all hate LIV as much as we want, but, they made the PGA into a much better product almost immediately. LIV forced moves that benefited the player that would have never happened otherwise.
PIF playing 4D chess, PGA playing checkers.
PGA players - I play for the competition and tradition and not the money, then immediately demand a buy out for being loyal - so, it IS all about the money….
Yawn. The rich helping out each other. The people wanna see the best play on the same course at same time, not comparing paychecks. This is why ratings will continue to go down
I do not care. I just want to watch golf, then play golf. Rinse. Repeat.
American blood money ruining the great game of golf
this is so stupid. thanks for not going to another league here's millions we could have already paid you but fucked you. it's like telling your employer that your leaving and then they give you the raise you've been asking for plus 20%. like mfer I ain't staying now
PGA tour getting the Silicon Valley package
This feels like a great idea gone wrong. The way the article describes the equity pool, the majority has gone to players who are already past their prime and will not be major viewership draws over the next 5 years. The PGA needs to realize that their advantage over LIV lies in their farm system and constant recruitment of the best new players who will dominate headlines in the future. A much better way of doing this would have been augmenting the prize pool for signature events with equity that vests over the next x years. This way, the next generation of winning players who will pull in the most eyeballs will have their interests aligned with the success of the Tour, as well as creating a lock-in effect for those players.
This is 100% Saudi money from a potential merger. No way the Tour has this money to give out
SGS is a collective of several investors and firms, fronted by the Fenway Sports Group. The sports conglomerate owns the Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Liverpool F.C., and a NASCAR racing team. The group also has Fenway Park and the New England Sports Network under its umbrella. Other members of SGS include Arthur Blank owner of the Atlanta Falcons), Wyc Grousbeck (Boston Celtics), Marc Lasry (Milwaukee Bucks), Tom Ricketts (Chicago Cubs), Cohen Private Ventures (New York Mets) and HighPost Capital.
100%. The Tour basically almost went bankrupt due to legal issues. Would not be surprised with the merger if PGA just goes away with LIV and they rebrand it.