Alan Shipnuck, The Firepit Collective says that LIV Golf executives are trying to “rein-in” Greg Norman.
Shipnuck was present at the LIV Golf 2023 Mexico debut last week, where “The Shark” didn’t speak with reporters. Shipnuck believes this was not a coincidence. In his article, Shipnuck reported that an LIV executive stated:
Greg wants to escalate the situation and every reporter takes the bait. It turns into, ‘Fuck me? It turns into, “Fuck me!” He can’t even have a conversation with someone without firing back. Is this an escalation? It is not. We are trying to lower the temperature .”
Shipnuck also disclosed that, in an effort to reduce the excessive spending, they have decided that all travel expenses will be on the respective teams.
LIV has now off-loaded all travel costs to each team in an effort to make it more self-sustaining. However, LIV did provide a stipend to this season’s tour participants because the tour is still young. The plan is to eliminate the stipend in 2024.
The players still retain the winnings–in Howell’s instance, it was a tidy $4million–but the $3million for the team win goes to the Crusher coffers and not the players.
The team pays each player an annual salary. There are also options for profit-sharing and bonuses at the end of the year. However, this depends on how much the team makes and how much it spends. This has led to class wars at LIV em>
This is a remarkable development. Each team can allocate funds however they wish. Brooks Koepka, for example, has decided to allow Smash GC players an allowance for travel and lodging.
“The Smash gives team members a set amount they can spend however they like, but if a member burns through it, he will be responsible for all expenses for the remainder of the season.”
Already 2023 has seen major changes in LIV Golf and it seems that there is an effort to make the cash flow more sustainable over the long-term.
