Greg Norman, LIV Golf’s chairman and CEO, didn’t tamp down the speculation about a women’s golf league to rival the LPGA Tour. 

“We talk about it internally, and I have had discussions with individual lady players, professional players,” Norman told reporters ahead of LIV’s tournament in Australia over the weekend.

Since the rumor began floating around last year, details remain elusive. A LIV Golf spokesperson pointed to the transcript of Norman’s news conference when Front Office Sports asked for more information. 

“It’s so vague,” said Lydia Ko, who entered the year as the world’s top-ranked women’s golfer, according to Golf.com. “To talk about anything that isn’t really here yet is all speculation.”

Outwardly, there doesn’t appear to be nearly as much acrimony from the LPGA toward LIV as exists between LIV and the PGA Tour. 

LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said in an interview last July that she “would engage in a conversation if it would achieve our aim of promoting women’s golf, but there needs to be input from players and sponsors.”

LIV Golf is almost entirely funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Aramco, the oil company controlled and majority owned by Saudi Arabia, has sponsored a Ladies European Tour series since 2020. 

Aramco’s second event of a five-stop team series will take place at Trump International West Palm Beach next month.

The Cleveland Browns may be facing a new financial hurdle in building a new stadium or making renovations to their current home. 

“I’m no longer going to risk general new fund dollars for maintenance of a privately owned football franchise,” Cleveland mayor Justin Bibb said Wednesday in his State of the City address. “So we’ve got to be creative.”

Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam are in conversations with city officials on plans for a new stadium — but also considering renovations to their current one, which was built in 1999 when the franchise returned to the NFL. 

A June 2022 report claimed the Browns wanted to build a publicly funded $1 billion domed stadium, which the Haslams denied in favor of focusing on renovations to the existing venue. 

The team’s current lease at Cleveland Browns Stadium — which recently ended its naming rights sponsorship with FirstEnergy — runs through 2028.

Bibb recently proposed using $20 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act to invest in Cleveland’s lakefront area— and that a new Browns stadium or renovations would have to fit “into a larger piece of making us have one of the best lakefronts in the world.”

Ravens Bank On Name

The Baltimore Ravens and M&T Bank have once again extended their naming rights deal to the NFL team’s 71,000-seat stadium. The Ravens announced that they’ll keep the bank’s name outside their home for another 15 seasons. 

The current agreement was set to expire in 2027.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is looking to add to its expansive portfolio of sports properties. 

The PIF is reportedly in talks to buy Belgian soccer club KV Oostende. The club, which plays in Belgium’s second-division soccer league, could be bought for around $12 million. 

The Saudi fund — which owns LIV Golf and paid roughly $400 million in 2021 for an 80% stake in the Premier League club Newcastle United — is also “believed to be talking” to several other European soccer clubs potentially available for purchase. 

The Belgium club’s current owner is Pacific Media Group, a U.S.-based investment firm that has stakes in several other soccer teams across Europe. 

The PIF manages an estimated $620 billion in assets globally, including investments in companies such as Live Nation, Disney, Uber, and Meta, as well as video game giants Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, and Activision Blizzard. 

The PGA Tour is in an ongoing antitrust legal case with the PIF’s LIV Golf.

The USL’s Oakland Roots soccer club has proposed building a new stadium next to RingCentral Coliseum, the ballpark the Oakland A’s currently call home. 

The A’s, however, have just announced plans to buy land for a new stadium in Las Vegas. 

The Roots, who’ve made the USL Championship’s conference semifinals each of the last two seasons, currently play at Laney College. They are seeking a 10-year lease for the new site, which would host its women’s USL affiliate, the Oakland Soul, and possibly hold up to 10,000 fans.

Before Wednesday’s decision to buy land in Las Vegas, the A’s proposed building a $12 billion waterfront ballpark to stay in Oakland but failed to agree with the city. 

Oakland mayor Sheng Thao, who questioned the A’s commitment to staying in the city earlier this week, voiced support for the Roots’ stadium proposal. 

“In just a few short years, the Roots have become a beloved institution in Oakland, and we are thrilled they will soon be joined by Oakland Soul,” Thao said.

The Roots ownership group includes former NFL star running back and Oakland native Marshawn Lynch.