WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) at a Senate Banking Committee Hearing. | Getty Images
Two high profile Senators wrote a letter to the Department of Justice castigating the PGA Tour’s deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
Politicians continue to chastise the PGA Tour’s deal with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF).
On Jun. 13, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ), asking the DOJ “to closely scrutinize this deal and oppose it.”
Warren and Wyden argue that the PGA Tour and the PIF have violated the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 and the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, the Clayton Act prohibits mergers and acquisitions in which they may lessen competition or create a monopoly.
The Sherman Act outlaws every combination that restrains trade and any move that monopolizes an industry.
“This deal appears to have a substantial adverse impact on competition, violating several provisions of U.S. antitrust law, regardless of whether the deal is structured as a merger or some sort of joint venture,” Sen. Warren and Sen. Wyden argued.
“It would give the PGA Tour and PIF control over all significant aspects of U.S. commercial golf operations, including contracts with U.S. golfers and their opportunities to compete, television rights, cost of attendance to elite golf events, and merchandise. This is no different from the joint venture between American Airlines and JetBlue that was recently found unlawful by Judge Sorokin in the District of Massachusetts.”
Wednesday’s letter also slams the Saudi Arabian regime, citing its long history of human rights abuses.
“Saudi Arabia’s human rights record is atrocious: the regime of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and his father, King Salman, routinely harasses and harshly prosecutes individuals for peaceful expression or association,” the letter states.
“[Saudi Arabia] executes individuals (including children) for robbery and drug-related crimes after rigged trials, increasingly including through mass executions; and directed the extrajudicial murder of U.S. resident [and Washington Post reporter] Jamal Khashoggi.”
Photo by Chris Trotman/LIV Golf via Getty Images
JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA — Paul Casey looks on during day three of the LIV Golf Invitational – Jeddah at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club on October 16, 2022.
“The PGA-LIV deal would make a U.S. organization complicit – and force American golfers and their fans to join this complicity – in the Saudi regime’s latest attempt to sanitize its abuses by pouring funds into major sports leagues.”
Sen. Warren and Sen. Wyden also call out the PGA Tour for hypocrisy but do so indirectly, citing how the tour felt about the Saudi regime and LIV Golf in 2022.
“LIV is not a rational economic actor, competing fairly to start a golf tour,” the PGA Tour said in 2022, according to the letter from Sen. Warren and Sen. Wyden. “It is prepared to lose billions of dollars to leverage [U.S. golfers] and the sport of golf to ‘sportswash’ the Saudi government’s deplorable reputation for human rights abuses.”
The tour’s previous feelings about LIV Golf and the Saudi regime—and how quickly they turned around and struck a deal with PIF—have raised the eyebrows of many in Washington.
On Jun. 12, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) penned a letter to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan indicating that the Senate would investigate this agreement. As a part of the probe, Blumenthal ordered Monahan to provide all records and communications with PIF to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by Jun. 26, the Monday after the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.
As for Sen. Warren’s and Wyden’s note, they hope the DOJ and U.S. antitrust agencies do not take this deal lightly.
“We urge the DOJ and the Antitrust Division to allocate sufficient resources to closely scrutinize the proposed deal, including a careful review of the overt monopolistic goals of the parties and the potential consequences of the PGA Tour and LIV’s complete control over professional golf in the United States.”
