Is a break coming? LIV’s deal with the TV company is on the table, says Feherty. He says he’s asking to be fired

The new LIV Golf League season is about five weeks away. But before the 48 chosen golf professionals take their first walk on the greens of Mexico, the LIV still has a number of unanswered questions to resolve. One of them concerns a promised television deal that would open more doors for the venture, which is subsidised by Saudi public funds.

Although it has been quiet for a long time, it looks like LIV Golf could finally get the coveted contract. Multiple sources, including well-known golf analyst David Feherty, suggest so. He dumped NBC Sports and Golf Channel last summer to join the newly formed series, which competes in the US primarily with the popular PGA Tour.

LIV Golf, while trying to target a global market, also recognizes that the United States could account for a large percentage of their product’s viewership. This is reflected in the starting field, which includes players like Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and many others. For example, no less than six players have donned the famous green jacket for winning the Masters in the past.

It was David Feherty, who also makes his living as a comedian, who recently hinted during a visit to the Travis Center in West Palm Beach that LIV was probably indeed about to announce the coveted contract. He literally said that LIV Golf is close to securing a deal with the television network known for teen dramas and superhero shows.

It would be the CW Network:: “Have you heard of the CW?”, he asked after his Thursday appearance. Then he added: “I could get fired for this,” the Palm Beach Post quoted the 66-year-old analyst as saying. But Feherty is far from the only one talking about the partnership between LIV and the CW Network. The Sports Business Journal and others recently published similar information.

Securing a TV deal is critical to LIV’s new business model, which is team play. The series will be renamed the LIV Golf League this year and will grow to 14 tournaments. They will continue to be played for just three rounds with no cuts, with 12 four-man teams.

These, according to LIV’s grand plans, are to be franchised as a primary source of revenue to help begin to offset the billions invested by the Saudi Arabian public purse to get the league off the ground. However, at the same time, CEO Greg Norman recently added that it won’t happen until the end of this season when the teams are sold.

The partnership with CW should be the first step. Although many fans (especially those on the PGA Tour) joke that the CW Network is a “teenager’s station,” on the other hand, this goes hand-in-hand with LIV Golf’s plans to bring its series to a younger audience.

There has been talk of a Fox Sports station before. However, it is still not known what the promising negotiations failed on. Partnerships with CBS, NBC or ESPN, which already work with the PGA Tour, have also been ruled out. So in the end, LIV likely found salvation in the form of the CW Network.

Interestingly, this network is partially owned by the CBS television company. This means that if these speculations are confirmed, LIV will effectively sign a television deal with a PGA Tour partner.

The public is now waiting to see if these speculations are confirmed and LIV will announce the partnership shortly. That could happen as early as this week. In the future, the broadcasts should also be available on the official LIV website, Facebook or YouTube, which last year became the home of live broadcasts from LIV tournaments.

In addition to the TV deal, fans are eagerly awaiting the finalized team rosters or the full list of events for the 2023 season.

Source: LIV Golf, Palm Beach Post