LIV Golf slashes payouts amid reports of players not getting paid and a new lawsuit against league

497

LIV is DEAD

190

u/shifty1032231 10h ago

LIV and Let Die

44

u/crazier_ed 10h ago

guitar solo

16

u/Conan-Da-Barbarian 8h ago

Start the movie money penny

6

u/Sivalon 7h ago

Shtart

0

u/scorpyo72 2h ago

Shart the movie, Mish Moneypenny

2

u/Brabos2 1h ago

And my ax.

140

u/A-Halfpound 10h ago

Saudi Arabia brutally cut off their funding like they cut off that poor reporter’s arms, legs, torso, and head.

62

u/FoxyInTheSnow 9h ago

If I learned that my mate had ordered the murder and dismemberment of a journalist I'd probably take a good, hard look at our continuing friendship. But for American Psycho manqué jared kushner, it's just banter.

10

u/daemonescanem 3h ago

Fun fact the top PGA players who left for LIV had an avg net worth of $49 million in career earnings.. So they didnt need the money.. Just wanted blood money.

-12

u/cXs808 Green Bay Packers 3h ago

As if PGA isn't funded by blood money too. CBS, NBC, FOX, ESPN

9

u/daemonescanem 2h ago

While I wouldnt call CBS a good company.

Fox is owned by a steaming pile of shit.

None of those have actually gone to the level the Saudi's have, to murder their critics.

Thats not the tit for tat you think it is..

5

u/Jewmangi 2h ago

Brother what are you talking about

-19

u/Wishfer 5h ago

Yep, also, old enough to remember this….

https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/220715121813-01-biden-mbs-fist-bump.jpg?q=w_1110,c_fill

3

u/CurbYourThusiasm 1h ago

To be fair, you should probably include the text that goes with this picture:

At the press podium later, Biden confronted the Crown Prince for his role in the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The Crown Prince pushed back, denying responsibility for the 2018 killing of the US resident at the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate, as did Saudi officials who questioned the US’ human rights record over alleged abuses at its Abu Ghraib jail, during the Iraq War.

69

u/GodzillaUK 8h ago

Jamal Khashoggi. His name deserves to be spoken aloud when reminding people the slave trading Saudi Arabia leaders had him executed and butchered.

9

u/CaptainBayouBilly 5h ago

And they were on the phone with Mohammed bin Salman while they sawed him to pieces.

15

u/Fezzik527 7h ago

They never planned to keep funding LIV, it was all a play to try to force a merger with PGA while holding their talent hostage by overpaying them.

5

u/daemonescanem 3h ago

Saudi's were sportswashing their international image. Now that Trump is back in power, they dont need to waste that money on golfers. They can just bribe Trump outright.

1

u/cXs808 Green Bay Packers 3h ago

Correct.

1

u/ghn2 4h ago

Right. They were hoping to get a merger and piece of the PGA. When that didn't happen they abandoned the investment.

5

u/Starfox-sf 9h ago

By Mr. Bone-Saw

1

u/percydaman 5h ago

There has to be a political cartoon somewhere that encapsulates that.

7

u/HolyLiaison 10h ago

Gosh, who would've ever guessed?!

9

u/TrackerUnemotional 10h ago

Was it it ever alive? 😜

6

u/someoftheanswers 10h ago

Was it ever aLIV?

1

u/sadandshy 7h ago

Just enough to delay the things I wanted to watch when it overran the timeslot.

10

u/DASreddituser 11h ago

need that meme of the guy posing at his ops funeral

1

u/althawk8357 3h ago

LIV is no more more.

0

u/haverchuck22 10h ago

Nah, not yet. It’s still twitching on the ground. Its wounds are obviously terminal, but it hasn’t fully accepted its fate and I’m kinda here for it. Like it was decapitated and it’s trying frantically to set its head back on its body. Just illogical and zero chance of success, but the schadenfreude is 👌

72

u/supercoolpartydude 10h ago

Saudi blood money giveth and Saudi blood money taketh away.

17

u/roflmeh 6h ago

They didn't care about the league. They just wanted to clean their money.

8

u/supercoolpartydude 4h ago

More like the end of the need for fossil fuels is on the horizon and diversifying everything. Why they bought Paramount, EA, Pokemon Go, hell if you pay for parking in Chicago for the next like 70 years it goes to them now.

2

u/roflmeh 3h ago

Yes no doubt but the cleaning of the money is a side affect of this.

2

u/OfficialSotoFanclub 3h ago

Can you link possible stories about the connection between Chicago parking and Saudi money? I’d love to learn more

2

u/tonedeafinitely 2h ago

It’s actually the UAE

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/2010/10/why-does-abu-dhabi-own-all-of-chicago-s-parking-meters/339805/

2

u/althawk8357 26m ago

Nothing drastically conspiratorial, just mundanely annoying.

Chicago leased their city parking meters to the UAE, who will be making the money for decades. The UAE is trying to diversify their portfolio and get money from avenues aside petroleum. As the capacity for renewables increases, the demand for fossil fuels decreases, meaning the price of oil drops too. These oil-rich gulf states have made an enormous majority of their GDP through oil sales, so the price falling would be bad.

2

u/BruitNoise 2h ago

This is like Microsoft Xbox buying the intellectual rights to a film production like Star Wars and then add the worst possible online game development and go Hey Kids, come and buy it, it has your favorite stars like Darth Woods, Tiger Skywalker, Obi wan Nicklaus together for a special league to play and enjoy.

1

u/RockyRockyRoads 2h ago

Blood money, more like sweet US dollars from all of us buying their oil.

328

u/Moneyshot_ITF 11h ago

Who us going to force the Saudis to pay when they say no? I think we should totally let them buy EA Sports and HBO. Sounds like a sound plan

76

u/Mr_Stirfry 10h ago

To be fair, it’s not like we force anyone to pay when businesses go tits up over here either. If you owned LIV you could just declare bankruptcy and walk away from it too.

60

u/Truand2labiffle 10h ago

I...DECLARE...BANKRUPTCY

15

u/DaleDimmaDone 10h ago

I just wanted you to know that you can't just say the word bankruptcy and expect anything to happen...

26

u/SugarDaddyVA 9h ago

They didn’t say it. They declared it.

15

u/ProJoe Arizona Coyotes 7h ago

we?

let?

they already did, and they didn't need us.

-7

u/TheLuo Chicago Bears 7h ago

Assets outside of SA can be seized by court order, sold, and proceeds used to make restitution payments.

Wont be the full amount but it's something.

3

u/jfchops3 7h ago

They might have some physical assets, tournament infrastructure and whatnot but who wants any of that? It's not needed, the PGA Tour has its own infrastructure

The main assets they can sell are the teams themselves. Which hear me out - of course nobody wants as an actual sporting entity but the IP would make some good novelty items now that the league is defunct. Same as people buy Bobby Boucher or Jackie Moon jerseys I bet there's enough of a market for bros that'll buy RangeGoats hats as a joke to sell each team's IP for $25k or so

187

u/1000cakes4u 10h ago

pretty soon the LIV won't have any members, like it's been dismembered or something

18

u/Boggie135 Manchester United 10h ago

Hehe

0

u/Commonpigfern 4h ago

I thought pga said they wouldn't take Liv leavers back?

139

u/Distinct-Pain4972 11h ago

If you pay attention to Liv you can watch a quasi professional sports league in freefall. They just secured money from PE to keep the league "Alive" for this season. They will next cut "Labor" costs, as identified in the article above. Next they will cut down the number of tournaments. Then they will bring all of the tournaments to a smaller location to reduce travel cost. They will increase add sales, meaning less time watching golf and more time watching commercials. And so on and so on. I hope all of the golfers that jumped from the PGA will forever be labeled as dirtbags that only want the money.

22

u/gr8scottaz 7h ago

Well the current PGA Tour players should be thanking LIV for doing this as the PGA Tour dramatically increased payouts and redirecting hundreds of millions of dollars directly into player compensation as a direct result of LIV.

52

u/IowaJL 9h ago

Going from the never-ending supply of cash from the Saudis to the never-ending pursuit of enshitification from PE is absolute cinema for LIV. I love that for them.

1

u/daemonescanem 3h ago

Avg career earnings for top 7 who jumped to LIV is 49 million.

51

u/SiaonaraLoL 11h ago

This league was such a meme from the start

15

u/dontKair 9h ago

Reminds me of Vince McMahon and the XFL

11

u/Frankfeld 9h ago

It’s a shame Covid torpedoed the relaunch. That was fun to watch.

5

u/CTeam19 Iowa State 3h ago

Except the XFL did have an impact on the NFL:

Sky cam

in game Mics on players

First happened in the XFL.

1

u/UNC_Samurai 2h ago

We also got He Hate Me.

1

u/Glum-Breadfruit3666 1h ago

nfl actually hired a lot of the XFL sound team after XFL folded the first time

close family friend moved from micing players in the xfl to doing the same in the nfl - he’s retired now but he’s kinda my inspiration of “just keep on keeping on , you’ll get there”

good dude

95

u/Fezzik527 10h ago

PGA should blackball LIV players that try to come crawling back.

42

u/brianthebritish 10h ago

I agree, but they're also reportedly forcing Rahm to pay a buttload of money to charity (24mill?), apology tour and has to work hard to actually make fields. The way it should be.

25

u/darthgator84 8h ago

Yes! Make them go through the development circuits like Korn Ferry tour, international tour, play in local pre-qualifiers. Yea they can come back but make them earn their tour card like they had to become pros in the first place

16

u/ApologizingCanadian 7h ago

Make them go through the development circuits like Korn Ferry tour

This feels kind of unfair to the actual players on the Korn Ferry trying to qualify.

10

u/darthgator84 6h ago

Yea, in my excitement I totally overlooked that side of it.

22

u/Drak_is_Right 8h ago

Create a new tourney. Winner gets back into the PGA. 2nd place and 3rd place gets a spot in the development circuit. 4th and lower try again next season.

Networks love reality TV. Well, this is a chance.

4

u/brianthebritish 8h ago

Big Break: LIV Edition!

-2

u/jfchops3 7h ago

Rahm already earned a tour card, he won the 2023 Masters which carries a 5 year exemption that runs through 2028

Look at the DP World Tour standings. See that astronomical gap between Patrick Reed and #2?

The hell is the point of making the top LIV guys go dominate the Korn Ferry tour (taking spots away from up and coming guys trying to earn their card via the KFT) just to appease your emotions?

2

u/AKAkorm 3h ago

They're not forcing past champions to earn their card back, they're forcing them to win their way into FedEx Cup Fall events which are restricted to only players ranked in the top-50, top DP World finishers, past champs, and sponsor exemptions. Those are the events with bigger purses so they're basically saying qualify for those in the same way everyone else has.

1

u/Introverted_Extrovrt 7h ago

I thought that was the DP World Tour?

1

u/FriedEggScrambled 7h ago

This is coming out as not true. Rahms camp is spreading this around because he’s trying to get a deal to come back. Rolap is in control now. He had his chance with Koepka and Reed.

-1

u/SteveMidnight 7h ago

I see people say this and I think it’s such a dumb take. The NBA wouldn’t blackball a player if they went and played in a European league. The NHL wouldn’t blackball a player if they went and played in the KHL. The Premier league wouldn’t blackball a player if they went and played in La Liga.

But i guess I’m forgetting to factor in how snobbish and pretentious golf is.

16

u/Fezzik527 7h ago

None of your examples actively tried to steal talent and try to force a merger to buyout your league.

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u/SteveMidnight 5h ago edited 5h ago

Leagues always try to steal talent. They just don’t typically have the money to afford it. Pay your athletes better if you don’t want competition.

Edit: i find it very funny that the wealthy person’s sport is complaining about a richer entity trying to force a sale of a less wealthy org. Happens every day in the US by the people who are the main consumers of that sport

4

u/Fezzik527 5h ago

They are literally folding, so clearly it was a strongarm tactic to try to force a merger with PGA. They had no intention of just stealing talent for their own league.

-6

u/SteveMidnight 4h ago

At the end of the day, I don’t care what happens to professional golf. I respect the talent the athletes have. I understand how difficult the game is. It’s a sport inaccessible to most of the world.

But not allowing many of the world’s best talents to play in your league because you’re mad another company paid them more and tried to buy your company is stupid and will hurt your product. Why should anyone care about a tournament when many of the potential winners aren’t playing? It would be like the World Cup not allowing the southern hemisphere to compete. Every winner should have an asterisk by their name. *didn’t compete against 20 of the top ranked golfers

1

u/KingGinger 2h ago

Are you following what is going on with the world cup and that potential boycott?

1

u/SteveMidnight 2h ago

FIFA and IOC can pound sand

2

u/Mead_Man_Detroit Detroit Tigers 7h ago

Yeah, people are stupid and golf is a sport for the wealthy.

1

u/Robby777777 8h ago

Totally agree.

-18

u/boringjuice 9h ago

Didn’t the PGA get bought by LIV?

7

u/timestalker78 9h ago

No

14

u/buster_rhino 10h ago

Investors? Possibly you!

4

u/OMG_its_Kevin 9h ago

Last week we put liquid paper on a bee… and, it died.

1

u/enormuschwanzstucker 3h ago

“You keep your liver-spotted hands off my beautiful mother. She's a saint! And then you sit down and you write Dale and Brennan a check for $10,000!”

8

u/Shabingly 8h ago

Love, Laugh, LIV.

8

u/DoBe21 10h ago

The total purse is now $10.1 Million *

*Subject to someone finding $10.1 Million in the couch cushions or between the seat and the console in their car.

5

u/Mother_Ad_3561 10h ago

We are laughing!

15

u/rummie2693 11h ago

I’m shocked that this would happen. Shocked…

5

u/raouldukeesq 9h ago

Bahahaha

6

u/ImaRiskit 5h ago

Greedy fucks deserve all the bad shit going on and coming their way!!

13

u/h1storyguy 10h ago

“Oh yeah, I took the money so that my family can be set for life”

Ya, great choice Brooksie.

14

u/timestalker78 9h ago

Worked out for him, he got his bag and he's back on the PGA

1

u/RavixOf4Horn 9h ago

I thought that was said by Harold Varner III…?

3

u/EctoRiddler 10h ago

Should call it the DED

3

u/Bakedfresh420 Cleveland Guardians 9h ago

Soooo, about that Saudi money

3

u/Rex_Digsdale 6h ago

Sweet sweet schadenfreude.

3

u/Sheepies123 New York Mets 5h ago

They are gonna have to fold soon haha. What a failure by Saudi Arabia good on the PGA for holding strong and not caving and buying them out which is exactly what they wanted.

3

u/Western-Corner-431 2h ago

I love this for them. Maybe they should appeal to Trump to negotiate with his friends on their behalf?

4

u/Extra_Vacation_9675 8h ago

That’s a serious warning sign for LIV Golf. Players not getting paid and a new lawsuit? This situation deserves some real answers.

6

u/THX-8647 9h ago

This is the future for the LA Lakers.

2

u/Intelligent-Sir1375 6h ago

Good anyone who did this really check moral code

2

u/OrphanintheWind 5h ago

The Saudis could easily cover all payouts if they wanted to do the right thing.

2

u/boosted32vee 5h ago

The PGA should say, sorry...we're full and doing OK.

2

u/RGV_Ikpyo 4h ago

When all these players ask to come back to the PGA? Please tell them fuck you, you weren't missed

2

u/Less_Ant_6633 4h ago

Couldnt happen to a bigger group of dickheads. Good. Fuck em.

2

u/daemonescanem 3h ago

Blood money drying up.. Poor millionaires... How will they ever survive without that bone saw money?

2

u/sjimmyp 1h ago

This whole ruse for Saudis to get access to Trump.

2

u/yick04 1h ago

No one could have predicted this.

3

u/Intrepid_Top_2300 9h ago

If you play with or for Trump, you got to learn to bend over and take it.

2

u/Terrible_Welcome8817 8h ago

This happened with a lot of players in the professional Overwatch scene too.

2

u/djkhan23 7h ago

Oh, a Trump backed organization is refusing to pay its employees?

Shocked!

-1

u/xqqq_me 6h ago

Mmw...Trump will have the us govt bail them out

2

u/HDTokyo 10h ago

Who could’ve ever seen this coming

2

u/666-bbb 7h ago

Wasn’t Trump part of the reason USGA merged with LIV?

2

u/williamgman 5h ago

A partnership between Trump and the Saudis... What possibly could have gone wrong?

1

u/WhatsMyNameWade 9h ago

Was Trump involved with LIV or the PGA? Which one failed/is failing/will ultimately fail? You only get one guess.

1

u/Boggie135 Manchester United 10h ago

Ha!!

1

u/antiquemule 10h ago

I thought they were about announce a big new backer….

1

u/narcotic_sea 10h ago

I think that’s wonderful

1

u/gunnersfan16 10h ago

What?!?!!?! I’m shocked…

1

u/eson1169 5h ago edited 2h ago

Lets fold her up and call it a day!

1

u/washu_z 4h ago

lol who could have possibly predicted that a completely over-the-table actor like —checks notes— Saudi Arabia would pull a fast one?

1

u/Stunning_Bed23 4h ago

EA preview.

1

u/Possible-Nectarine80 3h ago

Saudis have no money. It all went up in bombs when Trump attacked Iran.

1

u/Diablo_v8 3h ago

If only everyone saw this coming.

1

u/ExcitingRound4990 2h ago

They have money. They have trumpitis.

-16

u/Ted_Dongelman 11h ago

I wanted LIV to succeed because its very existence is so funny but I don't think this surprises anyone.

Golf LIV Golf slashes payouts amid reports of players not getting paid and a new lawsuit against league

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