Jay Weber Show transcript 6-7-23 6:40 am
So, after all that virtue signaling and handwringing over how the Saudis were trying to pollute golf and use it to raise their nefarious level of power over the west-
Suddenly ‘all is good’ and a PGA-LIV merger is underway.
Huh.
That’s quite a pivot. The news of the merger was broken on CNBC shortly after my show ended yesterday, and it was quite the bombshell.
It isn’t often that news out of the business world-or the sports world-isn’t leaked ahead of time. We get a heads up on virtually every big sport story, because someone blabs to a reporter and it’s often the same thing with big business news-
But this news legitimately blindsided everyone yesterday morning because-
A)Both organization’s leadership teams managed to keep it under wraps- and
B) because absolutely no one in the business world or the sports media was looking for it.
Know what I mean?
A possible merger between these two organizations-after so much animosity and litigation between the two-wasn’t on anyone’s radar.
And I know...I know...Donald Trump predicted it, generically, last year: as a golf course owner and an interested party, he suggested that ‘at some point’ these two would merge. It turns out to be a good call on his part-
But it’s not like trump said on Sunday: there’s big news coming. Get ready for some great golf.
No one had inside knowledge of this deal coming together, aside from a few principal players. Folks-even Greg Norman- the former golfer who is the commissioner of the liv tour- didn’t know about this until yesterday morning.
It turns out that the PGA commissioner and the top Saudi running the liv tour had lunch together and played a round of golf-and say that the deal was hashed out during that time. Over one lunch, and over the course of a few hours...on the course.
Unbelievable.
And no, the financial details haven’t been made public.... which has a lot of people insisting that must be that the Saudi government-with all of its money-has just purchased a great American sport and institution-
But the commissioner of the PGA says he will continue to be the head of it...and the PGA members will continue to have majority control of the board-
Which is smart for the Saudis-even if they were the purchasers- given that they need to keep a western face and a western feel on this sport.
The Saudis wanted a piece of the global ‘golf action’, and they are getting it. The profits will flow- and the major PGA stars who have been trashing the liv tour are now probably going to magically become some of its biggest cheerleaders.
This is a massive win for the Saudis and LIV golf who got some big names to defect by paying them hundreds of millions of dollars...but Tiger, Jack Nicholas, Rory McIlroy and the PGA’s biggest names have refused to defect, or even admit that liv was a legitimate new powerhouse in the golfing world.
They’re bound to now.
In fact, the biggest problem for the PGA now is going to be integrating its biggest defectors back into the PGA events-after so much bad blood has been built up. Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson were all labeled traitors and scumbags who were taking dirty Saudi money …and even selling out their country...in order to play on that tour.
This is a country under a crown prince that is trying to modernize-but only to a point-and it’s a country that has a decades-long, terrible, human rights record that exists to this day.
It’s government and it’s religious leaders have also been a very questionable ally-and sometimes enemy-of the US government.
This is all amplified by the fact that -ultimately? -it is the Saudi govt and the crown prince that are behind the liv tour...and a government investment fund.
And the golfers, themselves, are said to be confused and blindsided by this: many who stuck with the PGA felt they were being patriotic, and it was a matter of u-s pride to reject million dollar offers to defect.
In fact, that’s what they were told by PGA commissioner, Jay Monahan. Up until a few months ago, he was labeling liv golfers western traitors...and now he’s all good with it.
Numerous PGA golfers are said to be PO’d
It was all about the money. It always is. Especially in sports.
Folks-we have black NBA stars making hundreds of millions of dollars off of Chinese slavery-as Uyghar slaves to make their clothing lines-and no one in the league makes a peep. No leftist campaigns are launched against them. Even very ugly hypocrisy reigns in professional sports when money is on the line.
Black American athletes. Profiting off slavery. And not saying a thing.
Up against that-how is the PGA hopping into bed with a corrupt Saudi regime any different?
The only thing the fans will care about is- can we watch golf? And is it good golf?
That’s it. And everyone on both sides of this merger knows it.
Now-it-will-be interesting to see if the deal can make it past the Biden administration’s heavy regulatory hand.
We’ve talked about how, under this Biden regime, his commerce officials are going out of their way to find excuses to deny mergers.
Will the federal government need to formally bless this one? And if so, does the Biden regime allow it to be completed?
After all- Biden and Blinken got into office and immediately made a point of insulting and distancing themselves from the Saudi crown prince and the Saudi government.
Are they still holding a grudge?
Could Biden and Blinken queer the deal?
That might really result in some disappointment for PGA execs and the Saudis.
Stay tuned.
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