LIV Golf to Shut Down as Rescue Deal Collapses
The Facts
- LIV Golf will wind down operations instead of launching a second version, attorney Matthew Williams told a New Jersey bankruptcy court Thursday, saying the debtors are "toggling to a value-maximizing wind-down" and will file a new Chapter 11 plan Monday.
- The league said Thursday that its restructuring support agreement with BC Partners was terminated, and board special committee members Gene Davis and Jon Zinman called an orderly wind-down "the most responsible path forward" as LIV moves to liquidate.
- Thursday's hearing lasted about 13 minutes, with LIV's remaining assets, including real estate and trademarks, set to be sold. Restructuring expert John Sparacino said players become free agents while creditors likely recover pennies on the dollar.
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The Spin
Narrative A
A sport run for decades as a closed shop was forced to compete, and the gains went to the people who play it: bigger purses, equity stakes and real leverage over the Tour. LIV's collapse removes that pressure. Players who left for the money were bargaining for a fair price, and the Tour that now welcomes them back should drop the penalties, since golf is better for having been challenged.
Narrative B
A league built on Saudi billions bought stars and a veneer of legitimacy, and when the funding stopped it could not stand alone. The golfers who sold their names to a regime's image campaign now face a sport whose rules and accountability held. The Tour that outlasted LIV owes nothing to those who left, and golf is better for learning that money alone cannot make a tour.
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