LIV golf, which attracted almost £4billion in Saudi Arabian investment, could be sold for under £1!
One financial wizard expert has predicted the breakaway league’s best hope of survival could be to offer it to potential buyers at a token price of $1 – around 75p.
Sign up for the Sport newsletter
Thank you!
Bryson DeChambeau is not trying to negotiate a return to the PGA Tour Credit: Getty
LIV Golf could be sold for just 75p Credit: PA
LIV has been cut adrift by the Saudis’ Public Investment Fund, and is losing cash at a rate of around £75 million a month.
That prompted the respected Golf.com website to contact two money experts to see what chance there is of a rescue act.
Both told the US site they did not want to be named, and both painted a gloomy picture of LIV’s prospects of making it beyond their final event of this year – in August – when the PIF money officially dries up.
One of them, who was said to ‘supervise transactions for a global professional services firm’, commented: “This could be one of those situations where the purchase price is a dollar, and someone just takes the liabilities off your hands.”
KARREN BRADY
LIV Golf funding debacle proves great Saudi sports surge is in new phase
SWIFTY
Win a Swift Trekker and a Volvo or £90k cash from just 34p with our code
Both finance executives agreed the best hope for LIV was that it would attract a buyer who saw it as a “vanity purchase – a golf-mad billionaire, or a casino owner looking to use LIV for publicity purposes.
The second Golf.com source, an expert in ‘corporate restructuring’, pointed out that many American sports franchises lose money, but are propped up by owners with deep pockets.
He said: “A team’s value is not based on what their actual cash flow is. It’s based upon somebody wanting to own a sports team. And there’s only so many of them.
“What happens is people come in, they’re independent and they are looking to maximize value. They will identify all the options that there are, and they’ll pursue all those options to a point that makes the most sense.
BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK
“And then at the end of the day, they prepare a plan for the worst options, whatever they are. That includes a going-out-of-business option, which is the floor value.”
That “floor value” is where the token $1dollar purchase price comes in!
LIV, who resume their schedule at Donald Trump’s Bedminster course this week, received a much-needed boost as Bryson DeChambeau insisted he is not trying to negotiate an early return to the PGA Tour.
Rumours have been rife that DeChambeau – LIV’s biggest star, and a player with millions of social network followers – had instructed his agent to get him out of the rebel league. Fast.
The double Major champion is out of contract in August anyway.
Reviving the Returning Member Program for recent Major winners – which led to Brooks Koepka’s rapid return after leaving LIV – would allow DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith to avoid 12 month bans.
But DeChambeau insisted he was not in talks with the PGA Tour. He said he wants to help breathe new life into LIV, especially their “unique” team element.
He said: “Talk of me being in dialogue with the PGA Tour is completely untrue. I’m working as hard as I can to find a solution. I’m committed to making team golf work in the best way possible.
“I think there’s a place for it, and I want to continue to grow the game across the world. That’s always been our mission and it’s never been more true than now.”
