Posted on 06/12/2023 7:23:43 AM PDT by george76
Saudi Arabia has been making investments in various sports, spreading its influence and evolving the country, with the recently announced merger between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour being the latest example.
The country's Public Investment Fund is the main driver behind LIV Golf, and the kingdom has faced accusations that it is attempting to improve its international image and reputation by funding the league — a tactic known as "sportswashing."
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Activists who oppose LIV and other investments have pointed to the country's history of human rights violations, particularly the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has touted sport as an important part of helping transform the country for the future through its Vision 2030.
Here is a look at some of the sports Saudi Arabia has thrown money at.
Golf
LIV Golf, founded in 2021, has been one of the most visible investments in sport by Saudi Arabia, with a challenge to the long-running PGA Tour.
The PGA Tour has resisted LIV Golf over the past two years, but LIV Golf had bigger money prizes and was enticing golfers to defect, which likely pressured the PGA Tour to partner with the upstart league rather than continue to compete with it on the green and in the courtroom.
With the merger announcement on Tuesday, the Public Investment Fund is going to "make a capital investment into the new entity to facilitate its growth and success," something PGA golfer Rory McIlroy alluded to at a press conference on Wednesday.
"At least the PGA Tour now controls how that money is spent. If you’re thinking about one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds in the world, would you rather have them as a partner or an enemy? At the end of the day, money talks, and you’d rather have them as a partner,” McIlroy said.
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Soccer
Two major investments Saudi Arabia has made in soccer involve a Portuguese player and an English club.
Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the most well-known soccer players in the world, signed a $75 million a year contract with Saudi Club Al-Nassr in December 2022. Ronaldo's signing was easily the most high profile of the Saudi league's history and lured him away from top soccer leagues, including Serie A, La Liga, and the Premier League, with the high contract value.
Another recent investment in the "beautiful game" by the Saudis was when the Public Investment Fund purchased Newcastle United as part of an investment group in 2021.
“We are extremely proud to become the new owners of Newcastle United, one of the most famous clubs in English football. We thank the Newcastle fans for their tremendously loyal support over the years and we are excited to work together with them,” Yasir Al-Rumayyan, PIF governor, said in a statement at the time.
The purchase of Newcastle United gives the Saudis a club in arguably the most illustrious soccer league in Europe and the world.
Formula One
The Saudi Arabian government also expanded its sporting footprint in 2020 when it announced a multi-year partnership with Formula One to establish a yearly Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah. The partnership was touted as part of the country's "transformational journey" at the time of announcement.
“Saudi Arabia is accelerating forward and the speed, energy, excitement of Formula 1 perfectly reflects the transformational journey the country is on. As we’ve witnessed in recent years our people want to be at the very heart of the biggest moments in live sport and entertainment. And they don’t come any bigger than Formula 1," Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Saud, Saudi minister of sport, said in a statement at the time.
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was held in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and is expected to be held again in 2024.
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WWE
The professional wrestling organization has maintained a relationship with the Saudi government for nearly a decade since it first announced a WWE event in the country in December 2013. Since the first event in 2014, WWE has hosted a dozen events in the country and announced an expansion to their partnership in 2019.
The 2019 announcement promised an expanded "live event partnership through 2027," with WWE specifically mentioning Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 as a motivating factor behind the expanded partnership.
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"This long-term partnership demonstrates WWE and GEA’s commitment to bring sports entertainment to the region and supports Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030," the 2019 news release said.
The most recent WWE event hosted in Saudi Arabia was the Night of Champions in Jeddah last month.
We’re waiting our time standing up for human rights. That’s the message I get.
wasting our time-my bad
The families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, moslem terrorist attacks .. contend that Saudi Arabia was more closely involved with the jihad hijackers and Islamic extremism more broadly than was reported.
Terry Strada, whose husband, Tom, died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, slammed .. PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA’s unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s reputation.
But now the PGA and Monahan .. paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al-Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones. Make no mistake — we will never forget,” Strada said.
Everyone in sports media is so upset over SA getting into the games (principally golf to date). But nary a word about China.
That’s because China is being subtle, putting in rules to let leagues earn there. While Saudi are slapping the table buying teams and now full sports. It’s easy to not notice China in sports, it’s impossible to not notice Saudi.
China sucks too. But they don’t own an American sports franchise.
Saudi Arabia is trying to buy “respect” in the world, and they seem to be succeeding.
What surprises me with the heads of the PGA is they are unfazed by by the fact that the Saudi government, via its government run “Public Investment Fund” (PIF - a “soveriegn wealth fund”) will become THE major financial backer of the new global golf monopoly.
It makes me wonder if they would even blink if the “sovereign wealth fund” the PGA was getting into bed with was a CCP fund.
In capitalism we’re all for sale. With enough 0s on the check all blinking stops.
I wonder how the Saudis feel about men competing as women?
Yet. You might see LeBron go in with them on an NBA franchise.
“In capitalism......”
Capitalism is only about making the best with your money, but it does not predicate the idea that “the best” never has any moral choices to consider.
It might be more “money making” to invest in gambling company stocks, tobacco, marijuana farms, ect., yet most capital building (capitalist) funds avoid such things, for moral reasons.
Capitalism might explain hot to best exploit markets, but it never alone explains which markets anyone morally choses or morally chooses against, nor does it alone explain our “capitalist” partners we agree to, another choice that can have a moral component.
Most “capitalists” are not pure capitalist, and do have other values they weigh in their financial desicion making.
Where “Capitalism” breaks down, is when you get too many “idle rich”, who have no appreciation as to how that money was earned.
So their investing in sports is an issue but investing billions all over the U.S. economy elsewhere is O.k.?
Most of the reason investment funds avoid tobacco and such is the lawsuits. That’s bad for the bottom line, so bad for the investors.
In the end it’s about money. And keep in mind LIV was on a path to supplant the PGA unless the PGA really changed. They’d lost most of the big names, and the LIV golfers were winning at majors (most of which the PGA doesn’t control), thus making a major play at having the better product. The PGA was either going to lose in 5 to 10 years, or get bought before then.
And as for “moral” component, all money winds up “blood money” at some point. If it’s not oil, or diamonds, or precious metals, or military hardware it’s something that makes money from them. I work on fax software, seem pretty innocuous, until you see our customer list. Just about every “dirty” business in this world makes money on real estate, and real estate lives on fax. So I technically get paid in “blood money” (and “not blood money”), and anything my company sponsors gets “blood money”, and anybody getting dividends from investing in us gets “blood money”. It’s all “blood money” if you look hard enough.
“In the end it’s about money. And keep in mind LIV was on a path to supplant the PGA unless the PGA really changed.”
Wrong. LIV was on a path to failure. They were not and could not get the audiences, the TV viewers and with that the revenue stream that comes with selling the TV rights and getting a share of their ad revenue. Monahan, the PGA commission admitted as much in his first public conversation about the merger, saying that the PGA was not only not facing financial failure but had no signs LIV would damage its success, even down the road. THAT only angers the players more, to hear that admission from Monahan and then try to understand the reasons he claims are the reasons he went ahead with it. Mertely to avoid the lawsuits was NOT a reason, as the logic of the lawsuits is totally undermined by the deal. Many of the lawsuits try to claim the PGA is a monopoly, which is not, and then the “deal” is to create a global golf monopoly. That hypocrisy is not most on a lot of the PGA players.
As for the players that went to LIV it was NOT “most of the top players” and many of the LIV players had been struggling to win (and didn’t) in recent years before joining LIV. Koepka has been the one exception lately. Michelson joined 100% for the money, to pay of his huge gambling debts. Yes for the LIV players it was 100% about the money. Clearly that was NOT the case with MOST PGA golfers, not even MOST of the TOP PGA golfers.
Dawa is to the Islamists what the ‘long march through the institutions’ is to Marxists.
The ultimate goal of Dawa is to destroy the political institutions of a free society and replace them with strict Sharia. Islamists rely on both violent and nonviolent means to achieve their objectives. ~ Ayaan Hirsi Ali
No they weren’t. Sure their rating IN AMERICA were low. But getting better. And of course being a global league they aren’t reliant on the American numbers. They’ve got TV contracts all over the world.
Monahan might not have been willing to admit the problems. But anybody who knows the sports world has seen these upstart leagues happen. And the ones that don’t crash and burn quickly (which LIV had way too much money backing them to do) eventually either win or merge. Most of the upstart leagues, especially the ones that have independent contracts with players, drive right through the same gap LIV did: pay the players more to play less and not grind themselves into dust. And that’s how they win. Look at British darts in the 90s. The upstart league there is the one that matters now.
The 2 majors that have happened the LIV players were about 1/4 of the field, but half the top 5 finishes. Really Rory was the biggest dog left in the PGA, and he’s been playing for crap since he started spending a lot of time complaining about LIV.
Everybody joined for the money. They’re professionals, the goal is to make money. And Koepka is a shining example of the problem the PGA had. He was coming back from injury, but how the PGA works he’d have had to risk aggravating his injury to get on the PGA grind. On LIV, fewer tournaments, fewer holes per tournament, and more money per tournament, he could greatly lower his risk. The PGA was in trouble. Not right away, but soon. And then the LIV said “or we can write you the biggest damn check you’ve ever seen.”
“They’ve got TV contracts all over the world.”
Viewership of their events live and via TV have not met LIV expectations, and even in the Middle East the DP World tour has more tournaments, viewers, sponsors via the emirates outside of Saudi Arabia. Saudis new venture is a swing against the “pipsqeek” emirates for outrunning them in golf for years.
For the PGA Championship Koepka did win but only one other LIV player was in the top five - Bryson; not “half” the top five finishers, as with ties for 4th there were six altogether that finished in the “top five” places; and LIV players did not account for 1/4 of the whole field. The same with the Masters tournament.
Doesn’t matter if it was meeting expectations. They had billions to throw in.
The merger includes DP World. Emirates got out run.
Less than 1/4 of the field. 3 of the top 6 at the Masters, 2 of the top 6 at the PGA and the win. All for the tour that the PGA insisted didn’t play “real” golf and the players wouldn’t be able to keep up. Plus of course you’ve got the issue that the Masters probably was going to be changing their entry requirements to keep LIV players available. Thus further weakening the PGA’s “not real” line.
Anybody that’s paid attention to competing leagues in sports has seen this show before. PGA was making all the wrong moves. All the moves the losers have made in the past. Until they made the smart move and took the cash now.
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