LIV star issues defense despite $1B losses and | Golf News

Ian Poulter has fired back at those questioning LIV Golf, sustaining that the controversial circuit’s “business is going to succeed” amid ongoing hypothesis about its sustainability.

The league took two vital hits during the offseason when Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed departed to rejoin the PGA Tour. Combined with difficulties attracting tv audiences in essential markets, particularly in America, dropping two marquee names has sparked hypothesis about potential future defections.

Bryson DeChambeau represents the most crucial asset, with his deal expiring at season’s end. The two-time major winner has remained cagey relating to his plans with LIV, although he revealed earlier this week that “progress has been made” during contract discussions.

LIV’s marketing campaign kicked off in Saudi Arabia this week against a backdrop of questions about what lies forward over the next 12 months, but founding participant Poulter – serving as Majesticks co-captain – continues projecting confidence about the league’s prospects.

“It’s always noise, right? And this has been the tricky thing in the media the last few years, the tours that don’t want to accept that LIV is here to stay have, obviously, been driving the narrative,” he acknowledged to TNT Sports. 

“But as we know from within inside looking out, that’s not the picture. This whole thing was that LIV was supposed to be additive to golf and additive to the global game, and to drive a younger audience, to really different product out there in the golfing world that I think has been a little stale.

“Obviously, since COVID, golf has skyrocketed.  I believe [LIV] is sweet for the fan. We’ve bought more households coming to occasions, we have more girls coming to the occasions. The great things that we do away from the golf course, our Little Sticks initiative, which is bringing 40,000 youngsters in the UK into the sport of golf.

“There’s so much going on that it’s obviously hard to push out to the media all the time, which they may not have written, but it’s OK. It’s totally fine. We know what we’re doing, we know where we’re going, we know the business is going to succeed, and long LIV Golf.”

Poulter’s reference to the business facet is especially attention-grabbing, contemplating the substantial financial losses the Saudi-backed LIV enterprise has gathered since launching in 2022.

The league’s UK-based entity alone has recorded losses exceeding $1 billion since it started, with whole investment in the project estimated at roughly $5 billion. In a current interview with the Financial Times, LIV’s CEO Scott O’Neil revealed the league expects to change into profitable within “less than 10 and greater than five years.”

“This is run like a business, with serious targets, KPIs … and a ton of pressure,” he added. “I don’t know any business worth its weight in salt that hasn’t had to invest in the early years to realize what’s coming down the road.

A key element of LIV’s plan to attain financial sustainability entails offloading minority possession in its 13 groups to exterior buyers, with banking powerhouse Citigroup introduced on board to handle curiosity in two undisclosed LIV franchises. The near-term valuation purpose sits at $300 million, with LIV finally aiming for staff valuations of $1 billion, Bloomberg studies