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When the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Golf series announced an agreement to join with the PGA Tour, it shocked deal makers across the sports world.
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¡§It¡¦s been a mix of stunned and in disbelief,¡¨ Alex Michael, a managing director at the investment bank LionTree, talked about the general reaction.
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Industry insiders quickly moved on to wondering which sport could be next.
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Saudi Arabia¡¦s enormous sovereign wealth fund, which is known as the Public Investment Fund, or PIF, has an appetite for sports. It has made investments in WWE, Formula 1 and a national soccer league.
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But the kingdom¡¦s history of human rights violations has been an obstacle to some deals in the United States. In 2019, the entertainment giant Endeavor returned the fund¡¦s $400 million investment after the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. And until recently, the PGA Tour was eager to use Saudi Arabia¡¦s record against it.
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That moral concern seems to have been overridden by the PGA Tour¡¦s business concerns. The deal with LIV Golf came together after the rival circuit picked up traction and lured players away with lofty purses, ultimately making it infeasible for the PGA to compete.
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¡§The Saudis didn¡¦t change history or change who they were,¡¨ said Lyle Ayes, CEO of Verance Capital, which invests in sports. ¡§The deal just made sense.¡¨
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Effectively a commercial partnership, the deal may open the door for more sports businesses to accept PIF funds, Ayes said.
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It would be difficult to pull off the LIV Golf playbook in another sport. Baseball faces challenges that would make an investment in a rival league risky: Its fan base is aging, the regional sports model is collapsing, and there aren¡¦t a lot of spare baseball stadiums big enough for a major-league team. A rival to the National Football League would require a large number of players, and past efforts to create competitor leagues have flopped.
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The National Basketball Association might be the easiest team league to challenge. Basketball requires fewer players than baseball or football, and courts are fairly easy to find or build. But given how much U.S. players are already paid, it¡¦s unclear what a rival league could offer.
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Tennis is probably the best candidate for a rival tour. Like golf, it¡¦s an individual sport, which makes it easier for PIF to lure athletes with big checks.
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