At the start of 2023, the specter of Saudi Arabia’s growing influence on golf and sports in general not only posed a moral dilemma for players and fans. Some argue it was also a threat to the multibillion-dollar professional sports industry itself.
Twelve months later, there is a different conversation, now practically devoid of the concern of supposed “sportswashing” and the line between “right” and “wrong.”
The central debate now seems to be how rich the Saudis could make athletes before they finish investing their money.
Two relevant events generated the change: On June 6, it was announced that the PGA Tour was seeking to do business with the Saudi group itself, which it had considered a threat, after financing the LIV Golf series on behalf of the Arab kingdom. Six months later, the Spanish Jon Rahm, third in the ranking and who had initially resisted the LIV, moved to that league for a contract that, according to some reports, would have been close to $500 million.
Under less dramatic but equally important headlines, there were ongoing conversations between the Saudis and the leaders of professional tennis, and there was constant pressure from Saudi Arabia on world football, vividly reflected in the decision that paved the way for to host the largest sporting event, the World Cup, in 2034.
“You’re investing in sports, which is one of the few growth industries in the world,” Dan Durbin, director of the USC Institute for Sports, Media and Society, said of the Saudi strategy. “It is, as far as we can see, an almost endlessly growing industry.”
Golf talk came to the fore in early 2022, when Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, or PIF — the nation’s sovereign wealth fund — was laying the groundwork for the LIV tour.
Phil Mickelson, six-time major winner, gave an interview, in which he used profanity to talk about the fear that the Saudis instilled. It was a reference to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and drew the dividing line in something that was painted as a struggle between good and evil, between the “status quo” and the Saudi disruptors.
Virtually ignored in the debate was the way in which Saudi Arabia has inserted itself into virtually every aspect of the world economy. The Saudis gain much of their influence by supplying about 15% of the world’s oil. In sports, the kingdom had already made important inroads.
Cristiano Ronaldo had joined a Saudi club backed by the same investment fund that supported the LIV, through an agreement that, according to different reports, reached $200 million per year. The Saudis would have put around $500 million annually on the table with the aim of recruiting another world soccer icon, Lionel Messi.
Messi rejected the opportunity to play in the Saudi league.
The fund also owns Newcastle, an English Premier League club.
Investment will continue in 2024
As 2024 approaches, there are no signs of this trend slowing down. The Saudis have a Formula One race and, according to some reports, they would have considered purchasing that entire motorsport series from Liberty Media Corporation. The deal would not have taken off since Liberty was not willing to sell.
Now, the Saudis would seek to invest about $5 billion in the Indian Premier Cricket League, with a view to expanding it to other nations.
In tennis, the ATP has a five-year agreement to hold one of its biggest events in the Saudi port city of Jeddah. Talks would be ongoing between the Saudis and the women’s tour.
And in a sign of the conversation changing, Billie Jean King, who started the fight for equal pay in women’s tennis in the 1970s, has said that bringing the sport to Saudi Arabia wouldn’t be so bad, despite the history of repression of women’s rights in the country.
“I don’t think you really change unless you get involved,” he said earlier this year.
Durbin sees the way the kingdom has embraced sport as a move to make Saudi Arabia seen as more than just an oil country with a questionable human rights record.
Some consider that this would represent the most typical example of “sportswashing”.
“For decades, sports have been at the heart of soft diplomacy,” he said. “You try to create a positive response and a feeling about your ethics, given that you are adhering to the rules of the sport.”
The end of 2023 and all of 2024 would be dominated by the results of months-long negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi investment fund, which will ultimately determine the fate of the LIV.
Rahm’s decision would have been a preemptive gamble, recognizing the reality that golf will be reunified. If that’s the case, there won’t be anything wrong with having an extra $500 million in the bank.
One of the Spaniard’s biggest concerns about moving was his possible exclusion from the Ryder Cup. The prestigious team tournament, which pits the best in the United States against the best in Europe and where no one is paid to play, was considered something of a forbidden territory for those who defected to the LIV, particularly on the European side.
Now, even Rory McIlroy, four-time major champion and LIV’s biggest detractor, has suggested that those responsible for the Ryder Cup relax their stance toward players in that series competing for Europe.
What do you think of Rahm?
“You can’t judge someone for making a decision that you consider to be the best,” he told Sky Sports in early December. “Is it disappointing for me? Yes, but the golf landscape changed on June 6.”
A telling sign of the impact of Saudi Arabia’s entry onto the golf scene is this: the top 10 on the PGA Tour earned a combined $86.6 million in prize money during the season that ended in 2022.
In 2023, that figure rose to $124.1 million.
Meanwhile, the first 10 of the LIV obtained 159.4 million in 2023.
This helps explain why, in 2024, the debate in golf and other sports will not focus on whether this change has been a good thing, but on how big a slice the Saudi kingdom can buy in the universe. sports.
“What you find is that, when you’re lining up your pocket with some of that money, it can’t be ‘dirty money,’” Durbin said.
2023-12-20 17:38:52
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