Here’s exactly what LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil had to say following the news that the company was filing for bankruptcy protection.
LIV Golf CEO writes to the fans
To our fans,
Thank you for embracing our players, our teams, and a new way of experiencing professional golf. LIV Golf was created to bring the world’s best players to fans around the world, and thanks to your support, in a few short years we built a truly global league.
We put team golf on the world stage consistently and combined elite competition with music, culture, art, and energy in a way global golf fans rarely get to see. Fans 20 years younger than golf’s traditional viewership showed up onsite and through our content. We brought world-class players and teams to new markets. We welcomed major global broadcast and marketing partners. And, most importantly, we built a passionate community of fans who believe in what LIV Golf can become.
Now it is time to enter the next phase of LIV Golf. Today, we took an important step forward to get there. LIV Golf has entered a court-supervised restructuring process that provides us with the time and framework to address previous financial obligations and complete a transaction that will make the League’s next phase a reality. Put simply, this process is designed to build a stronger and more sustainable future for LIV Golf.
Plenty of well-known companies have taken this path before us, including Marvel Entertainment, Delta Airlines, and Caesars Entertainment, along with sports franchises like the Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Leeds United F.C.
We are entering this process with a clear plan and the support of BC Partners, well-capitalised investors with deep experience in sports and entertainment.
Our objective is not simply to preserve what we have. It is to make it better.
The next phase of LIV Golf will be built around a sustainable business model and deeper alignment between players and the League, with team golf at its core. Players will have the opportunity to share directly in the value they help create, while teams will be positioned to grow into enduring global sports businesses. And fans will remain at the centre of everything we do.
There is still work ahead, but I want you to know where we are going.
We intend to continue competing across five continents with events you’ve come to expect in places like Australia, South Africa, Mexico, England, Hong Kong, and the United States.
We intend to expand our fields to 75 players, introduce a cut, and create additional pathways for players to earn their way into LIV Golf, including Monday qualifiers.
Events will still have the music, culture, and energy that make a LIV Golf weekend unlike any other.
More of our teams will embrace national identities, building on the passion and momentum of World Cup-style competition.
The next generation of fans will be celebrated, and we will continue to welcome children under 12 to attend our events free of charge.
Our players will continue to engage with fans on site and across social platforms, fostering the meaningful connection today’s golf fans expect.
We will continue to evolve the competitive format with our players and partners to expand access to the biggest stages in golf.
Above all, we will continue working to make professional golf bigger, better attended, and more globally connected.
I have often said that our role in golf should be to complete, not compete. I believe that more strongly today than ever. I know that the next phase of LIV Golf will be an important part of a healthier global golf ecosystem. It will create more opportunity for players, bring elite golf to more parts of the world, and give teams and players a real stake in the future they are building.
Transitions are rarely easy, but they are powerful when you know where you are going. And we do.
To everyone who wore a team hat, brought their family to an event, watched across the five continents, inspired through social media, or just believed professional golf could be for everyone: thank you. You helped build the foundation of LIV Golf. Now we build what comes next, with the same ambition we had at the start: bring the next generation of global fans to golf.
Long LIV Golf.
Scott O’Neil
CEO
Article Link: IN FULL: LIV Golf CEO writes to the fans