LIV Golf’s team championship event is underway in Miami, and players and executives are optimistic about the league’s future.

Ahead of the season-ending tournament at Trump National Doral Golf Club, Bubba Watson said he had received interest from as many as 20 people about buying his team, the RangeGoats. “There was [sic] three in Singapore, and then after Singapore the floodgates opened,” he said. “There was even more. There’s been talk this week. I met with people this week. There’s quite a few.” 

Team captains like Watson, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Brooks Koepka own their franchises and have the ability to sell equity in them.

Outside of potential team sales, expansion beyond the current 12 four-player franchises could be on the horizon. “We can accommodate up to 15 teams with the shotgun start,” LIV Golf chief operating officer Gary Davidson said. “I don’t think that we’ll get to 15 teams next year, but yeah, there’s a possibility that we may add a team or two.”

Playing The Field 

Looking ahead, Mickelson made some ominous comments about more PGA Tour players joining LIV next year. “I’ve been fielding calls, as we all have, from players that are agents to PGA Tour players,” he said.

And amid an uncertain future as LIV’s backers at Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund negotiate with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour about unifying the pro golf landscape, LIV CEO Greg Norman isn’t concerned about the prospects for his league, which he says has “never been stronger.”

Four-time NBA champion Andre Iguodala is retiring from professional basketball, but will immediately launch his next career in venture capital. 

After playing 19 seasons and winning the 2015 NBA Finals MVP award, the 39-year-old will run a $200 million venture capital fund with longtime business partner Rudy Cline-Thomas.

Cline-Thomas, a minority owner and vice chairman of English soccer club Leeds United, is the founder of alternative asset manager MASTRY, which is rebranding as Mosaic General Partnership. The fund’s new website lists Iguodala and Cline-Thomas as two of five co-founders and managing partners.

Mosaic’s public portfolio includes NFL agency Athletes First, athlete wellness app Players Health, and live sports operating system Jump. The firm will now focus on seed- and early-stage investments in sports companies, enterprise software, and fintech health care.

Iguodala also just added a minority ownership stake in the San Francisco TGL team to his portfolio, which also includes investments in Leeds United and Bay FC, the expansion NWSL club set to launch in 2024.

Follow The Money

Iguodala’s move follows a recent trend of current and former professional athletes becoming more active investors. Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce were just part of a group that bought into the Alpine Formula 1 team. 

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs has created a new division called Sports Franchise in Investment Banking that will offer their clients the ability to buy into pro teams.

Three months ahead of its January launch, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s virtual golf league TGL is already starting to look like a top-tier American sports property.

This week, TGL announced the ownership group for its fifth of six planned franchises. Former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry is partnering with Stephen Curry to head up the team, TGL San Francisco, with additional investment from fellow Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson.

Meanwhile, Fanatics has been brought on to run TGL’s league and team e-commerce operations, putting the golf league on par with other top American competitions working with the $31 billion mega-company.

ESPN will serve as TGL’s media rights partner, giving the league a mainstream broadcast outlet.

The other ownership groups for TGL include Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, Boston Red Sox parent company Fenway Sports Group, New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, and Serena Williams and her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Other minority team owners include Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, USWNT star Alex Morgan, and golf star Michelle Wie West.

Professional golfers committed to play in TGL’s first season include seven of the current top 10 players in the world, along with Woods, McIlroy, and other stars like Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, and Rickie Fowler. One more team ownership group will be announced in the coming weeks.