Sportswashing
Over the last decade, investors have been digging their claws into the juggernaut that is American sports. Some investors are from foreign countries, which seem opportune to promote American sports and players abroad, but the opportunity is not in America’s favor. In reality, it makes American fandom susceptible to something much worse – Foreign Sovereign Wealth Funds.
Foreign countries with authoritarian regimes are trying to gain influence with Americans through “Sportswashing,” where governments, individuals, corporations, and groups try to wash over their scandalous and damaging reputation, especially with regard to human rights abuses, through sporting events, sponsorships, and/or team ownership and investment.
One prime example is Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment (PIF). The fund has a significant stake in Walt Disney Company (owner of ESPN), Live Nation/Ticketmaster, and many more American companies. PIF has access to a massive media machine that can cleanse its reputation and work to make you forget that they murdered an American journalist. Saudi Arabia is also doing this with LIV golf and the Professional Fighters League.
So why should fans care? You are footing the bill for American sports teams, stadiums, and arenas. For years, we have called out the corruption behind taxpayer-funded arenas and stadiums. Howevr, the new pattern of sovereign wealth funds makes the issue worse for American taxpayers and fans. We should not be footing the bill for the benefit of countries that go against the fundamental human rights that America defends across the world. Sportswashing is more harmful than you think, and we’ll be making sure it doesn’t ruin your fandom!
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Saudi Arabia’s PIF created SRJ Sports Investments, which is focused on finding sports ventures to invest in. SRJ Sports Investments acquired a minority ownership stake in mixed martial arts (MMA) from the PFL. SRJ Sports Investments invested $100 million into the PFL. This is another step for the PIF to be able to diminish their countless human rights violations through sportswashing. MMA has become an international sport that acquires athletes from all over the globe, and now the PIF/SRJ Sports Investments can have greater influence on the world of sports that have a heavy US fanbase.
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Funded by Saudi Arabia’s PIF, LIV Golf has been competing with PGA Tour since 2022 by offering higher compensation to the PGA Tour members. This caused massive tension between long-standing members of the PGA Tour and the PGA itself. LIV filed an antitrust suit against the PGA Tour for utilizing their monopoly to block competition. After some negotiations, it was decided that a merger between the two would be the best way to deal with the suit effectively. The merger is still in negotiations, but recent news has shown PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and LIV Golf Chair Yasir Al-Rumayyan playing golf together.
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What is private equity and why are we against it? Private equity investment is the ability for private firms to pull funds to buy/own a stake in a company, or in this case an American sports team and its respective franchise along with the people who work for each individual team. Notoriously, private equity firms are buying local newsrooms, hospitals, and many other vital services across the country, gutting these businesses in the process. This means that firms are caring more about the profits that they make rather than the livelihoods that suffer from the erosion of their jobs.
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