MIAMI – The PGA Tour announced a deal worth up to US$3 billion (S$4 billion) with a group of billionaire sports team owners on Jan 31 to create a for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises.

The commercial venture partnership with Strategic Sports Group (SSG), under the PGA Tour’s control, offers nearly 200 PGA Tour players the chance to become equity holders in the new company launched on the same day.

SSG includes Fenway Sports Group, the owners of English Premier League club Liverpool, Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox and the National Hockey League’s Pittsburgh Penguins.

Joining them are MLB’s New York Mets owner Steven Cohen and National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons and Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank.

Under the programme, players would collectively access more than US$1.5 billion in grants that vest over time with SSG investing an initial US$1.5 billion and the possibility of putting in another US$1.5 billion later.

The money would maximise revenue to benefit players and enhance worldwide golf growth opportunities, said three-time Major winner Jordan Spieth, among the PGA policy board player members who unanimously backed the deal.

“It’s navigating the next media rights deals,” the American said.

“It’s trying to figure out how to better monetise the content that we have at the PGA Tour. We’re going to rely on them (SSG) is the short answer to help dictate how to grow that newco.

“You talk about the funding, but really the strategies that they can have in navigating that space will be very important.”

Player equity grants, according to a statement by the PGA Tour, “will be based on career accomplishments, recent achievements, future participation and services and PGA Tour membership status and grants are only available to qualified PGA Tour players”.

“The coolest thing about it is the players are now owners,” Spieth added. “Not only do they benefit with the tour, they now are equity owners so they want to make the product better.

“We’re in a place where we could be better than we’ve ever been.”

The PGA Tour also said that progress has been made in ongoing merger talks with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), backers of LIV Golf, which will be allowed to make future investments in PGA Tour Enterprises.

“Both parties are working towards an ultimate agreement,” it said in a statement.

The talks regard completing a merger framework deal announced last June that would unite the PGA and DP World tours with PIF and combine their commercial assets, including LIV Golf.

But Spieth questioned the significance of a PIF-PGA merger in the wake of the SSG deal, seeing more benefit from a LIV-PGA talent reunification more than Saudi financial support.

“I’m not sure... of the importance,” he said. “I don’t think that it’s needed.

“The idea is that we have a strategic partner that allows the PGA Tour to go forward the way that it’s operating right now without the option of other investors.

“Whether them (PIF) or somebody else, that will just be a decision with you know, the active talks. I think the short answer is we don’t have to but I think the long answer is the positive that there is a unification.”

Any investment by the PIF in the future is “subject to all necessary regulatory approvals”, a nod to US lawmakers who inquired into details of the Saudi plan.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, chief executive of PGA Tour Enterprises, echoed Spieth’s sentiments when he spoke about the importance of making PGA Tour members owners of their league.

“We strengthen the collective investment of our players in the success of the PGA Tour,” he said.

PGA Tour player directors Spieth, Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson, Peter Malnati and Patrick Cantlay also said in a statement that they were proud to give unanimous support to the new deal with SSG.

“It was incredibly important for us to create opportunities for the players of today and in the future to be more invested in their organisation, both financially and strategically,” their joint statement said.

“This not only further strengthens the tour from a business perspective but it also encourages the players to be fully invested in continuing to deliver – and further enhance – the best in golf to our fans.” AFP, REUTERS