To the extent there is such a thing as karma, this is it.
Trump hosted the LIV Tour ‘s second American event out of spite for the PGA Tour, which pulled its PGA Championship from Trump’s Bedminster club after January 6th. The LIV tour is sponsored by Saudi oil-blood money in a desperate attempt at sportswashing their, ahem, “PR difficulties” under the murderous sand monster MBS. The LIV Tour has paid utterly grotesque amounts of money to have big-named players show up and just play. They don’t even have to win. Many players have turned the money down as a matter of principle. Trump couldn’t turn down the chance to host it. Money was the principle.
So his tournament started by infuriating the 9-11 families who have been battling with the Saudi government for a decade. And most fittingly, it ended with humiliation. It was like Trump hosted a “big tournament,” and no one noticed… or paid (Except the Saudis.)
From Mediaite [1]:
Measuring its popularity is tricky, in part because the start-up doesn’t seem concerned about traditional metrics in these early stages. Unlike at other pro golf events, there aren’t corporate logos and signage littering the course. Though the LIV Golf social media accounts are active, there is no television rights deal and no commercials on the streaming broadcasts.
Fewer than 1,000 people were concurrently watching the Facebook Live feed for much of the first two rounds this weekend, while LIV Golf’s YouTube channel was at or above 60,000 viewers for much of Saturday’s second round. On the course, there were far fewer people. Event officials didn’t announce attendance, though most estimates suggested only a few thousand spectators. Tickets sold for $75 per day but could be had on the secondary market for $1 apiece (plus $5.05 in fees via StubHub).
Corporate America doesn’t want anything to do with the tour and thus, it won’t be televised anytime soon. The fact that no one wanted to even come to watch some of the best players in the world – the ones that took the money and ran? Well, that’s the biggest humiliation.
One-dollar tickets, down from $75… should go quite a long way in fighting inflation. Humiliating.
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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman