Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images
LIV Golf is currently in the midst of its fifth season, and it could end up being its final one as it stares down an existential crisis. The league has lost access to the virtually unlimited amount of cash it had at its disposal before Saudi Arabia announced it was pulling the plug, and it has reportedly started to court investors after hatching a plan to survive.
In 2022, LIV Golf officially set out on its quest to go toe-to-toe with the PGA Tour after poaching some notable names with the help of the massive checks that were primarily funded by money funneled from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
The upstart competitor seemed to be harnessing the “Throw As Much Money As Possible At A Thing And Hope It Works” approach in an attempt to brute-force its success, but over the next few years, it became increasingly clear that bold strategy was not paying off.
There was plenty of writing on the wall concerning LIV Golf’s impending doom when the 2026 campaign got underway, and in April, it seemingly suffered a fatal blow when the Saudis announced they were planning to cut their losses and pull the PIF funding that reportedly added up to more than $6 billion in the past five years.
LIV Golf is not going down without a fight, although the powers that be have a tall task ahead of them based on how much money they will reportedly need to raise to keep the league afloat.
Here’s how much money LIV Golf is trying to raise in an attempt to survive past the 2026 season
LIV Golf has really been facing an existential crisis since its inception, as its arrival was greeted with plenty of skepticism by people who felt like it had largely failed to justify its creation in the first place.
Those critics were largely vindicated after it was unable to do exactly that, as lackluster television ratings and an inability to move the needle when it came to the golf zeitgeist were reflective of its inability to adequately set itself apart from the PGA Tour while offering what was (by most accounts) an inferior product.
As of the start of this year, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neill asserted it wasn’t far-fetched to suggest a single LIV Golf team could be valued at $1 billion, but it’s very hard to imagine they could currently come close to fetching anything close to that based on a new report concerning his battle to keep the lights on.
According to Axios, LIV Golf is gearing up to woo “private equity, family offices, and individual billionaires” in a quest to stay afloat with a proposal that seeks $250 million with the goal of achieving “profitability within around 20 months.” The outlet notes $150 million appears to be the bare minimum when it comes to a much-needed cash infusion, although that would be contingent on “rising team values and a new media rights deal,” both of which seem to be major “ifs” at first glance.
The current season is slated to wrap up in Michigan at the end of August, so while LIV Golf has a few months to find a lifeline, the clock is definitely ticking.