A PGA TOUR emblem is seen after play was suspended due to extreme storms throughout the third spherical of THE PLAYERS Championship held at THE PLAYERS Stadium course at TPC Sawgrass on May 14, 2011 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
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PGA Tour and LIV Golf are working to extend their proposed merger deadline, which was initially set at Dec. 31, Commissioner Jay Monaha instructed gamers in a memo on Sunday.
“While we had initially set a deadline of December 31, 2023, to attain an settlement, we are working to extend our negotiations into subsequent 12 months primarily based on the progress we’ve made to date,” in accordance to the memo obtained by CNBC.
Monahan instructed gamers their purpose for 2024 is to attain agreements with Strategic Sports Group (SSG), the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and DP World Tour, bringing them on board as minority co-investors in PGA Tour Enterprises.
The PGA Tour just lately introduced that it was within the final round of negotiations with a coalition of U.S. traders, referred to as Strategic Sports Group. The SSG is led by Fenway Sports Group. Monahan stated they’ve made “significant progress” and have supplied SSG with the due diligence data they requested.
“These partnerships will permit us to unify, innovate and spend money on the sport for the advantage of gamers, followers and sponsors,” he stated.
The competing golf leagues are anticipated to make a proper resolution on the mix forward of the Masters match in April, in accordance to The Telegraph, which first reported the extension.
The delay is the newest replace in an extended and tumultuous saga between the PGA Tour and Saudi Public Investment Fund-backed LIV Golf that has divided gamers and may dramatically change skilled golf if the merger is accomplished.
The two entities agreed in June to combine commercial operations, stunning the worldwide golf group and elevating questions round competitors and human rights issues. Under the structure of the agreement, PGA Tour would maintain a everlasting controlling curiosity within the new entity’s board of administrators and PIF could be a noncontrolling minority investor.
If the proposed merger is accomplished, PIF is ready to make investments $1 billion into the brand new industrial enterprise. The settlement additionally contains the DP World Tour, also referred to as the PGA European Tour.
The deal is topic to seemingly antitrust scrutiny from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department.
Before the settlement, PGA Tour and LIV have been locked in heated litigation as LIV Golf lured Tour gamers away, providing large contracts. LIV Golf most just lately signed world No. 3 participant Jon Rahm to a contract price a reported $300 million.
Last month, the Tour instructed gamers it could start providing direct equity ownership within the new firm after it reaches a cope with traders.
In late November, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan instructed Andrew Ross Sorkin on the DealBook Summit that he was assembly with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, chairman of LIV Golf and PIF governor, to proceed discussions.
“When this will get finalized, the PGA Tour goes to be able the place the athletes are homeowners of their sport and you have acquired not solely the PIF, however you have seemingly acquired one other co-investor with vital expertise in enterprise, in sport and [in] model that is going to assist take the PGA Tour to one other stage,” Monahan stated on the time.