The future of LIV Golf will rely on players taking on more of an ownership stake to secure the tour’s survival, while a new schedule will heighten the importance of each event during the season.
LIV 2.0, as it is being called, will move forward in 2027 without funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, removing the financial stability that got the tour through its first five seasons, albeit at huge monetary losses.
Yahoo Sports reported that tour players will not only have increased equity in the league moving forward, they also will regain their commercial rights to market themselves and reap the potential rewards.
Commercial rights especially would be beneficial to a player like Bryson DeChambeau, who is lined up as the face of LIV as it heads toward its new era.
LIV Golf also is to lean even more into the aspect of team golf, which has worked well for the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup, but has not gained anywhere near the same traction in the LIV setting.
According to bunkered.co.uk, next year’s LIV schedule will be reduced to 10 events on five different continents. Five of those events will be considered “team majors,” while the other five will be called “signature events.” Yahoo reported that “National Opens” will be created as individual events that allow LIV to remain in key markets.
Players also will be allowed to have an ownership stake in the league as a whole, or have equity in individual teams.
“One door closes, another opens,” DeChambeau said in advance of last week’s event at South Korea event that was won by Joaquin Niemann of Chile. “I think that’s the way a lot of us are looking at it. I think we all have optimism that there is a business plan that makes sense for team golf.”
LIV continues to reach out to potential investors, although funding is not expected to be anywhere near what Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund offered. PIF reportedly invested upward of $5 billion in LIV and was nowhere near turning a profit.
–Field Level Media
