LIV on TV: Professional Golf as an infomercial

So it has come to this for LIV Golf. Unable – hardly a surprise –to find any American network outlet or sponsor willing to accept the breakaway Tour and all the associated baggage that comes with it, the Saudis are doing what they always do. They’re throwing money at the problem.

The result: Golf as an infomercial.

The Tour is reportedly negotiating to purchase time on Fox Sports 1 to air its tournaments.

The details are vague, the deal is reportedly not final, and no amounts have been reported. The amount, however, is irrelevant.

LIV Golf as an infomercial

Here’s what the golfing audience needs to know: The guy who writes the check controls the content. When a network pays a rights fee to a league in order to telecast its games, that’s a sporting competition. When a sports league pays a network to televise its games, that’s an ad…pure and simple.

When LIV Tour execs are forced to negotiate a price at which Fox Sports 1 will accept all the pain and suffering that goes along with airing LIV tournaments, it is a tacit acknowledgment on the part of LIV that it does not have a marketable product.

In the history of televised professional sports, it’s possible one could find a precedent or two for LIV’s willingness to buy air time. Perhaps that’s how roller derby got so much exposure back in the 1970s, although I doubt it. Maybe Vince McMahon sold wrestling that way in the early days of WWE. Again, probably not.

The execs at Fox Sports 1 obviously know this arrangement, assuming it is finalized, will stink to high heaven for them. They will be pilloried both on social media and in legitimate critical media for selling out their best professional judgment regarding the marketability of LIV golf.

The fee they get paid will have to be enough to assuage the pain and suffering network execs will have to endure.

But the biggest and most enduring problem will be for LIV Golf itself. There is a ‘crossing the Rubicon’ aspect to agreeing to sell your sports product rather than offering them up for bid.

First and most obviously, other networks that have already agreed to air LIV Tours — notably in Europe and Asia — will be in line with hands out asking a perfectly valid question: where’s ours?

Beyond that, by seeking this outlet, LIV execs are acknowledging their ‘tournaments’ are not competitions at the same level as the PGA Tour or for that matter the NFL, MLB, the NBA, NHL, NCAA, PBA, or WTA.

Instead, the word that comes to mind through which LIV Golf will be viewed is the word professional wrestling used to fall back on to describe its televised product: ‘exhibitions.’

That word has the monumental handicap, from LIV Golf’s standpoint, of legitimizing what has been the major criticism of the entire tour; that it is nothing more than sportswashing.

Assuming the deal is eventually finalized and LIV Golf shows up – either later this year or next year – as a paid product on Fox Sports 1, that makes it what can only be described as an infomercial. It would be as appropriate to show the tournaments on HSN, QVC, Mall, or GEM.

In fact, do not be surprised if David Feherty takes time during one of the telecasts to pitch LIV-related products. But call quickly; the sale ends in 30 minutes and the supply is limited!