Greg Norman was involved in original design.
150 million for DJ.
Golf is dead lads.
Sportswashing is in trouble though, it isn’t as simple as it once was. Not after what has happened in boxing and with football and the Russian oligarchs. Sportswashing has met both cancel culture and now nation’s states turning on it. The DEA have scores of forensic accountants going through bank statements right now and broadcasters like BT are shitting themselves that some money connected to them to a company in Dubai might come out.
Sponsors dumping players is telling, very few will touch this anymore. This yoke doesn’t even have a tv contract, they might puff their chest on YouTube and Facebook having billions of users but they are pretty much irrelevant in terms of sports broadcasting. This will struggle for coverage beyond the initial controversy.
I think that’s the biggest criticism of the players. The Saudis will eventually get bored if they aren’t getting traction in the West. Golf is too corporate to get away with this now, versus the likes of the WWE who don’t give a flying fuck. The lads here are basically taking big cheques that will destroy interest in the sport.
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I think the Saudis are in for the long game here and have been promoting themselves via sports sponsorship ever increasingly for the last 5/6 years. There’s very few large audience sports across the world that are not “adorned” by Aramco sponsorship signage. For context they are amongst only 6 global partners with F1 along with the likes of Heineken and DHL commanding a tv audience of 1.2 billion every year.
Also this crazy high fuel cost that we are experiencing right now has an awful lot to do with Aramco pushing and pushing the limit on wholesale fuel pricing. Don’t let anyone tell you the high cost of fuel is down to cost of production/transportation. A quick check of the record high oil price will tell you it was June 2008 at $166 a barrell when we were paying €1.20 litre at the pumps. Aramco share price has risen 25% in the last 12 months alone and the market cap has gone from 1.4 trillion to 2.4 trillion in about 2 years making it the second wealthiest company in the world. Of course governments are not too concerned about this as taxes rise commensurate with the high price at the pumps, filling large exchequer gaps that have been created by handing COVID money out like snuff at a wake for the last 2 years.
Saudi money is here to stay whether we like it or not.
Nah. Golf will still have its appeal. Its the growing old sport of millions. And they all have money.
And sportswashing is mostly allowed for countries. Barca/city/PSG are hardly shitting themselves. It’ll draw some heat for now but id imagine it’ll settle down like stuff always does.
Another two to the list
I’m off for some jelly and ice cream.
By time this all finishes McIlroy might finally be able to add to his major tally.
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No wonder he’s not moving 
Whatever else about it, McIlroy is staying where the challenge is
Hopefully the big hitters will. If they do the other abomination will fall flat on its arse.
Would it not be cheaper and easier for Saudi to clean up its Human Rights record than pour billions down the drain on this nonsense and Newcastle?
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The world has changed. None of those transactions would be allowed now.
The Saudis can buy an org but won’t be able to buy components of it.
The fact they are bought into some sports now means it’s a moral complication that we can’t shake, like us buying fuel from them.
The appeal of golf will reduce. This isn’t just putting it on a Sky Sports paywall. Sky actively promote the sport and long ago recognised the value of blue chip events like the Ryder Cup. LIV recognise that too, so think they can have teams and drafts here that create a buzz. You will have no sponsors and few news clips.
They’ve bought into those sports so will be hard to get rid of, absolutely.
Trying to buy golf is a different kettle of fish.