By Rahul Banerji
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has reached out to his base constituency seeking to explain the delay in ongoing negotiations with the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF and a second group of investors.
In a memo on Sunday, December 31, the deadline set during the June 6, 2023 Framework Agreement with PIF, Monahan said meaningful progress had been made in the talks.
The note was to address player concern over the state of the negotiations that also involve the Strategic Sports Group and the DP World Tour.
In the memo, Monahan said “meaningful progress” had been made in negotiations with SSG work on finalisation of terms and drafting necessary documents was on,
He said talks with PIF and the European tour was making “active and productive progress”. He added that the negotiations were seeking to bring SSG, PIF and the DP World Tour on board as minority co-investors in PGA Tour Enterprises in 2024.
“These partnerships will allow us to unify, innovate and invest in the game for the benefit of the players, fans and sponsors.”
Text of Monahan memo
“I wanted to provide an update on our negotiations with Strategic Sports Group (SSG), the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and DP World Tour.
“As you know, the Board unanimously directed management to pursue exclusive negotiations with SSG. I am pleased to report that we have made meaningful progress and have provided SSG with the due diligence they requested.
“As we move forward on our discussions, we are focussed on the finalisation of terms and drafts of necessary documents.
“We also continue our active and productive conversations with PIF and the DP World Tour. While we had initially set a deadline of December 31, 2023, to reach an agreement, we are working to extent our negotiations into next year based on the progress we have made to date.
“Our goal for 2024 is to reach agreements with SSG, PIF, and the DP World Tour, bringing them on board as minority co-investors in PGA Tour Enterprises.
“These partnerships will allow us to unify, innovate and invest in the game for the benefit of players, fans and sponsors…”
Negotiations with PIF have been on since the June 6 deal and Monahan has worked to bring other investors on board in a bid to counter the Saudi fund’s deep pockets that are also backing LIV Golf into its second full season in a few weeks.
The list of investors now called the SSG includes the Fenway Sports Group, owners of EPL leaders Liverpool FC, and received a go-ahead from the tour’s Policy Board that now includes Tiger Woods.
It was formalised in early December when the Policy Board agreed to continue negotiations with the 12-strong consortium of US-based professional sports team investors.
The PGA Tour’s 2024 season tees off on Thursday with The Sentry in Hawaii in a return to the calendar cycle.
Also read: PIF-PGA Tour agreement misses deadline, pushed back to April
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