LIV ‘won’t be the same’ in 2027 as boss responds | Sports News

Scott O’Neil has spent the week making an attempt to project an air of calm. The LIV Golf CEO fired off an e mail to workers on Wednesday insisting the season would proceed “exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle.”

He sat down for a pre-recorded interview with the league’s in-house broadcaster, speaking up the growth trajectory of the LIV Golf operation. But it was his subsequent dialog with TNT Sports in Mexico City that cut by means of all of the noise.

When pressed on the golf league’s future, O’Neil confirmed that funding solely extends by means of the present season. “It’s just not the way the world works,” he informed TNT Sports on Thursday. It comes as Rory McIlroy provides up $1.9M of Masters winnings proper after defending Green Jacket.

“We have commitments to have this be a going concern. The reality is you’re funded through the season, and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going. But that’s not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of mankind.”

The candid admission stood in stark distinction to each his inner memo and his different public statements this week, in which he informed LIV’s broadcaster Arlo White that the league’s income growth had positioned it on a sustainable long-term trajectory.

“This notion of, do you have to raise money? Probably. Like, this is business, you know? But if we keep the trajectory going the way we are, and the revenue growth going, this is going to be a really good business for a really long time.” Regarding what 2027 would possibly appear like, O’Neil supplied a frank but fastidiously worded response. “The only thing I can tell you is it won’t be the same as 26,” he mentioned, whereas additionally declaring the league already has 5 occasions on sale for subsequent yr and is deeply concerned in planning for the subsequent season.

The hypothesis has been mounting for days. The Financial Times reported earlier this week that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which has reportedly poured more than $5 billion into LIV Golf since the league’s 2022 launch, spending an estimated $100 million per 30 days, is close to withdrawing its financial backing.

The PIF’s just lately unveiled 2026-2030 strategic imaginative and prescient contained no reference to LIV Golf. PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan informed media that sure offers and investments have been being “reviewed, whether due to war in the Middle East or for reasons related to economic feasibility,” noting that regional battle “places greater pressure on the need to reposition certain priorities.”

The PIF has not launched an official assertion concerning LIV’s future. No closing determination has been publicly disclosed.

Within the LIV locker room, gamers have been stored largely uninformed. Fireballs GC captain Sergio Garcia mentioned the message he had acquired from Al-Rumayyan at the begin of the yr recommended long-term dedication remained in place.

“We haven’t heard anything other than what Yasir told us at the beginning of the year, that he’s behind us, that they have a long-term project,” Garcia mentioned. “You know there are always a lot of rumors, and I can’t tell you anything more than what we already know.”

Jon Rahm, one of the league’s most distinguished and reportedly highest-paid gamers, believed to have earned round $64 million since becoming a member of in 2023, mentioned he refused to let the hypothesis distract him forward of his opening spherical in Mexico.

“Until the people in charge told me if the rumors were valid or not, it didn’t make sense for me to think about it,” he mentioned. “We were here, we knew we were going to play, so the idea was to prepare for a tournament. And that’s it.”