LIV Golf retained the investment bank Ducera Partners last week. But quietly, it also called back the law firm that built the league from scratch. And this time, for very different reasons.
As per reports, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, the firm that advised LIV Golf on its formation, contracts, and legal battle with the PGA Tour, has been brought back to advise on turning around a loss-making business and finding investors to replace PIF funding.
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That shift is what makes this notable.
Gibson Dunn provided legal support to LIV Golf, which included all aspects of league operations from its initial establishment until its current status as a professional sports league. In the past, lawyers served as instruments of expansion for their clients. Today, they act more like emergency response teams during critical situations.
The explanation for the shift exists in its complete simplicity. PIF confirmed last week that it will stop funding LIV after the 2026 season, which concludes in August. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who served as PIF governor at the time of LIV’s establishment, has now left the organization. The Saudi fund cited the investment level as no longer aligned with its current strategy, a rare and pointed admission that four years of spending had crossed a threshold it was no longer willing to sustain.
The practice of hiring law firms to handle complex sports transactions exists as a standard procedure. Proskauer Rose and O’Melveny & Myers both led separate sides of the $2.2 billion sale of the Carolina Panthers. Every major league requires franchise sales and ownership restructurings, and investor negotiations to utilize lawyers. What separates the LIV Golf situation is that those engagements are typically about growth. This one is about survival.
LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil attends a media event announcing Adelaide securing the tournament until 2031, during the final day of the LIV Golf Adelaide at the Grange Golf Club in Adelaide on February 16, 2025. (Photo by Brenton Edwards / AFP) / — IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE — (Photo by BRENTON EDWARDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Shortly after PIF’s announcement, LIV Golf appointed turnaround consultants Gene Davis and Jon Zinman to lead a newly formed board. Ducera founder Michael Kramer, with over 30 years of experience advising on NHL and MLB franchise deals alongside major corporate restructurings, will lead the investor search. Since its founding in 2015, Ducera has advised on more than $850 billion in transactions across industries, including media, entertainment, and sports. LIV CEO Scott O’Neil called them “the right partner for this process.”
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Cost-cutting is also reported to be on the table. A corporate restructuring expert familiar with sports told Golf.com that turnaround teams “will identify all the options” and always “prepare a plan for the worst options, including a going-out-of-business option.”
LIV has real assets: signed players, 13 team franchises, hundreds of millions in sponsorships, and brand equity in the LIV name. The question is whether any of that can attract backers at the level PIF was providing.
But on the ground, the players are already doing the math.
“Golf, but louder” meets its quietest moment
Jon Rahm said it plainly: “For the business plan to change, there will need to be some concessions on our part.” He has years left on his contract with no clear exit. That is not a player speaking freely. That is a player reading the room.
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LIV’s CEO, Scott O’Neil, met reporters Tuesday, projecting confidence, saying he has received “a dozen inbound calls” from private equity firms, family offices, and traditional sports investors. But he declined to say whether purses would shrink, who covers player contracts beyond 2026, or when exactly a deal gets done.
The backdrop told its own story. Behind O’Neil at Trump National stood a media wall carrying six sponsor logos, four of them Saudi: Maaden, Riyadh Air, Saudi Aramco, and Roshn. The league is still, for now, a Saudi-funded operation looking for someone else to foot the bill.
O’Neil’s timeline is tighter than his tone suggests. He said the business plan needs to come together “in the next few weeks.” LIV Golf has seven events left this season. After that, whatever Gibson Dunn and Ducera put together either holds or doesn’t.
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