LIV Golf, which poured 2.5 trillion won, “I have no money”

‘Approximately 2,527.8 billion won.’ Jaw-dropping money was spent in just one year. However, there was not a single penny of income. The phrase ‘pour water into a bottomless pot’ fits perfectly.

This is the story of LIV Golf, which turned the world golf world upside down last year.

US golf media Golf Digest reported on the 9th (Korean time) that LIV golf lawyers said in a statement, “The American Professional Golf (PGA) Tour has damaged the LIV brand and increased costs by hundreds of millions of dollars. In addition, profits are virtually zero (0). It was made,” he said. LIV golf lawyers said, “We oppose the PGA Tour’s request to add the Saudi Arabian Sovereign Wealth Fund (PIF) and PIF President Yasir Rumayyan, chairman of the state-owned oil company Aramco, to the lawsuit.” is hurting Saudi Arabia’s support.”

It is not surprising that LIV Golf has no income. LIV Golf held 8 tournaments last year and failed to sign a contract with a sponsor as well as a contract for TV broadcasting rights. In addition, it spent a lot of money to recruit famous players, and has 125 employees in three global offices along with the tournament. There is virtually no structure for ‘income’.

How much money did you spend last year? First, it is known that it spent about $1 billion to sell Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Cameron Smith. According to what is known in the golf world, Mickelson is expected to receive more than $200 million, Johnson and Brooks Koepka and others $150 million, and Bryson DeChambeau and Smith $100 million or more. He also spent $225 million in prize money alone in just eight tournaments. It is analyzed that more than $ 800 million was spent on the operation of LIV Golf, including expenses such as running the tournament.

Although more than 2.5 trillion won was poured into it, the number of viewers on the YouTube channel that broadcast the 메이저사이트LIV golf tournament was disastrous. An average of 67,000 people. The London event only had 104,000 attendees, slightly over 100,000, while Bangkok (21,000) and Jeddah (27,000) had only 20,000 attendees.

It’s like ‘pour water into a bottomless pot’, but there is no problem because the PIF scale reaches 600 billion dollars (approximately 757.56 trillion won). It is the sixth largest sovereign wealth fund in the world.

It’s a bit more aggressive this year. The name is changed to ‘LIV Golf League’ and 14 tournaments are held. The total prize pool is $405 million. He also signed a broadcast rights contract with CW, which has more than 120 million viewers in the United States, but received no money. Only the condition of sharing advertising revenue was disclosed. Like last year, all costs for hosting the tournament must be paid by LIV Golf.

Broadcasting rights are the biggest source of revenue. The PGA Tour signed nine-year, $6.3 billion contracts with CBS and NBC for 2021. It also signed a streaming partnership (9 years, $675 million in total) with ESPN. It is known that LIV Golf will renegotiate later after capturing viewers in the United States rather than the amount of broadcasting rights right away.