LIV Golf officials 'frustrated' as teams struggle to attract sponsors
LIV Golf shook professional golf last year when it poached big names on the PGA Tour to the newly formed circuit, offering them multi-million dollar contracts.
However, things didn't go as planned in the league's first year. Despite the promise of bringing million dollars sponsorships, the breakaway circuit made 'virtually zero revenue' in its first season. Economy expert Steve Levitt opined that if this model continued, the Saudi-funded league wouldn't last more than two years.
Now, it looks like LIV Golf's patience is running out. As per reports, the league's officials have 'voiced their frustration' on the teams' slow momentum in attracting sponsors.
The 48 players are divided into 12 teams competing against each other in 14 events throughout the year. The PIF-funded league wanted all the teams to have individual sponsors and had asked players to work on their sponsorship deals.
However, as per Sports Illustrated, the process has been very slow and this has frustrated LIV Golf. The report stated that the team has started to accelerate the process of selling sponsorship by ramping up the staff, but the process is very slow which is a 'growing pain' for the officials.
As per the report, the LIV officials have expressed their dissatisfaction directly to the teams, stating that they are not putting enough effort into generating revenues.
It was recently reported that the breakaway league is planning to stop paying travel expenses for the players and caddies to give a signal to the players. Some rebel LIV members are not happy with the increment in the number of events from 10 to 14 this year.
The dissatisfied LIV rebels can't leave the breakaway league that easily as they will have to pay two to three times more of the signing amount for breach of contract.
What's next for LIV Golf members?
The LIV professionals are currently in Orlando for the third event of the 2023 season at Orange County Club, which will conclude on Sunday, April 2.
After the event, 18 LIV Golfers will be heading to Augusta National for 2023's first major golf tournament, the Masters. None of the majors have banned the Saudi-backed circuit players from their events.
Notably, LIV Golf professionals are banned from PGA Tour and DP World Tour events. LIV events are barred from OWGR, thus facing a serious drop in their rankings,
Augusta National will be a chance for players like Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Bubba Watson, Patrick Reed, Phil Mickelson, and Charl Schwartzel to gain some ranking points and improve their OWGR.
Here are the players that are playing in the LIV Golf League 2023:
- Thomas Pieters
- Taalor Gooch
- Sihwan Kim
- Sergio Garcia
- Sebastian Munoz
- Scott Vincent
- Sam Horsfield
- Richard Bland
- Phil Mickelson
- Peter Uihlein
- Paul Casey
- Patrick Reed
- Pat Perez
- Mito Pereira
- Matthew Wolff
- Matt Jones
- Martin Kaymer
- Marc Leishman
- Louis Oosthuizen
- Lee Westwood
- Kevin Na
- Joaquin Niemann
- Jed Morgan
- Jason Kokrak
- James Piot
- Ian Poulter
- Henrik Stenson
- Harold Varner III
- Graeme McDowell
- Eugenio Chacarra
- Dustin Johnson
- Dean Burmester
- David Puig
- Danny Lee
- Chase Koekpa
- Charles Howell III
- Charl Schwartzel
- Carlos Ortiz
- Cameron Tringale
- Cameron Smith
- Bubba Watson
- Bryson DeChambeau
- Brooks Koepka
- Brendan Steele
- Branden Grace
- Bernd Wiesberger
- Anirban Lahiri
- Abraham Ancer