LIV CEO O'Neil projects positivity but offers little insight
LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil met with the media Wednesday at the season finale. But while he spoke optimistically about the league's future, he offered few details on what's to come.
Video Transcript
We are building towards a league majority-owned by its players, and I want you to think about just for a minute what that means.
Players aren't simply playing for LIV Golf.
They have an opportunity to own it.
They get equity in what they're building.
They regain a majority of their commercial rights, and teams become real businesses with real assets.
And for the first time, the interests of the league and the players become truly aligned bui- around building long-term value together.
Can you give some sort of timeline on maybe the relationship with the lead investor?
When do you mer- move beyond term sheet and something more definitive long term?
Yeah.
We've spent, You know, this is a, a bit of a compressed process for those of you who've been, been in and around fundraising or, or in and around processes to raise this kind of money.
It's, it's typically quite long and, and the fact that we're at this point in a couple months is, is pretty incredible.
We're, we're fortunate to have a lead with the kind of, of vision and confidence and relationships to make this a really fun and exciting future for all of us.
In terms of, of timelines, I appreciate the question.
We have a very compressed timeline to get the deal done.
I'm not gonna share that here.
But I can tell you we're, we're well on our way to a transaction and, very excited about the future.
I'll go, over here, Scott.
Sean Zach with golf.com.
The league is definitely facing some financial pressure.
Of course.
Vendors being unpaid, suing, concerts being canceled, purse sizes decreasing.
How do you explain these things when you get asked by players, by GMs, by people in this room that are LIV staffers and they see headlines?
Yeah.
I mean, fortunately, we're, we're in this one together.
And I, I give I, I, I said it-- I guess I said it without saying it in the beginning.
This group has, has been under enormous pressure.
We don't often control our destiny, and we're trying to do and be the best kind and type of people and partners that we built our, our careers on, our reputations on, and our character on.
And so that's part of the reason I, I showed up today, because we don't, we don't run, we don't hide.
We just do what we can with what we have, and we're doing the best we can with that.
Is there any sort of deadline in terms of getting players to kind of be on board for this or commit to the future?
Yes, there is.
Are you able to speak on the, what type of deadline?
No, on the- All right.
Scott, over here again, sorry.
Yes.
Can you-- How would you characterize yesterday's meeting with the players and the investor and the player interest?
It was, it was, it was everything I hoped it would be.
You have a, you have a visionary, charismatic, driven, well-connected, leader, investor, businessman who, who answered questions with grace, shared his vision, and, and I, I think, was able to convey a lot of, a lot of the things that, that players and, and GMs and, and my colleagues wanted to hear.
It was a fantastic meeting.
With this new chapter of LIV that you're describing, what level of confidence do you have that LIV will remain in compliance with the OWGR standards and remain accredited?
Have there been conversations there?
Can you just describe what, what level of confidence you have in that?
I have 100% confidence.
A couple weeks ago, you were asked about bankruptcy.
I know that's a buzzword.
It's a scary word for some people, and your mind went straight to Sam Hinkie and what he taught you about optionality.
Trust the process and optionality.
That's right.
Optionality, yeah.
I guess a little bit more point blank, like, is bankruptcy considered one of the options for LIV Golf?
I don't think we would rule out any option.
I mean, the whole focus is on transaction, transaction, transaction.
We're, we're spending all time thinking about how we best land this plane and, and have it landed so we can take off again and, and all our focus is in that direction.
Bryson and the role that he plays in this enterprise is a big role.
Presumably, the contract of his that we've talked about for a long time expires on Sunday night, but he seems very committed to this, and he hasn't really told a whole lot of us about it.
So privately, your conversations with him, his buy-in, like, what do you see from him that makes you think he wants to continue doing it here?
You know, I'll, I'll leave all individual player questions to individual players.
Like, I, I, I have a lot of time for Bryson.
I talk to him quite a bit.
Having spent 30 years in this business of sports, spending time with professional athletes for most of it, I've, I've never met one who's truly, truly, not, not what they say but what they do, truly focused, like, and be mission-driven.
And he's one of those guys.
He, he cares about the global game of golf.
He cares about building this next generation of fans.
Scott O'Neill acknowledging that, the LIV Golf group is under pressure.
They're not hiding.
He called this, lead investor a visionary, charismatic, forward-thinking.
Your thoughts on the challenges he's facing and the optimism he's carrying.
Yeah.
It, it wasn't very much different from what we heard out of Scott O'Neill at the LIV event in New Jersey a few weeks ago.
In terms of the deadlines, he can't really offer- Yeah any kind of specifics in terms of the timelines towards a transaction.
Can't offer any specifics in terms of the nature of the deal or what LIV would look like going forward.
Can't offer any specifics on that either.
You know, he, he does try to sound confident.
Note, if you read a transcript of what Scott O'Neill is telling you, you'd say, "Okay, well, he's a confident guy," but he's also a guy who was confident that LIV had funded a, the LIV League or that the Public Investment Fund had funded LIV through 2032, as of a few months ago.
Yeah.
When that funding was pulled, he was confident that it was funded through the end of the season, but the growing list of unpaid vendors and creditors would suggest that's not true at all.
But the words on paper would sound confident, but when you look at the, the complete absence of any swagger out of Scott O'Neill and the body language there, that's a man who knows it's over.
That's not a man who believes this thing's going anywhere.
Do you believe that it comes down to those player commitments, which he said there's a deadline.
You know, he says he's not gonna publicly say what he's, his conversations have been like with individual players.
But is it Does this just come down to Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, and in particular Bryson, who- has become the face.
He is the face of LIV Golf, I think more than any player, because of his crossover appeal with the YouTube folks.
He's a two-time major champ.
He's volatile.
Do you think he is the, the key here in some ways to this franchise's future?
No.
He, he already has Bryson DeChambeau in there.
Bryson's very much all in- on this.
I think Jon Rahm, and frankly some of the other players, may even be more important.
But they are more, I suppose, more competitively relevant, I supp- in, in the Jon Rahm case, than most of the guys- Yeah out there.
But they ha- they have options, and they're looking at what those options are.
They're all looking for the door right now.
And the players are very, and increasingly, noncommittal in terms of what it is.
'Cause Scott O'Neill can't tell them- Yeah what LIV is, and he can't tell the investors what LIV is, unless those players have bought in.
And if Scott O'Neill has to make a bet on the loyalty of these players, he should call Jay Monahan and ask him- how that bet went for him.
Yeah.
These are not loyal players.
