REShow: Kevin Van Valkenburg - Hour 2

I just learned Discover credit cards do something pretty awesome. At the end of your first year, they automatically double all the cashback you've earned. That's right, everything you've earned doubled all the cashback from eating at your favorite soup dumpling restaurant. Doubled all the cashback from that trip where you sort of learned to snowboard. Also doubled. And the best part, you don't have to do anything ridiculous to get it. Nope, Discover does it automatically.

Seriously, though, see terms and check it out for yourself at discover.com slash match. This is the rich eyes and show. The rich eyes and show it's either the Jets or Michigan football for me live from the rich eyes and show studio in Los Angeles, Michigan football would just be so me I wouldn't even know what to do. And the Jets winning the Super Bowl.

I can't even wrap my head. Earlier on the show NFL Network insider Tom Pellicero coming up editorial director of no laying up Kevin Van Valkenburg actor and comedian Lil Rel Howery and now it's rich. Number two, the rich eyes and show is on the air. Great first hour. We had a chat with Tom Pellicero.

We got a two for one getting some information on what's going on with Dalvin Cook and the running back group and the National Football League and which teams are flying a little bit under the radar. According to Tom Pellicero and Mike Garofalo, they were driving together. Garofalo behind the wheel. Tom Pellicero sitting in the passenger seat. There's the photograph. There is you can see their dress play golf and they're going to Ian Rapoport golf course in Rye, New York.

That's awesome. Yes, and I asked who's the fourth. Pellicero said Ian doesn't have many friends.

It's probably just the three of them. So there's that. So if you're one of those foursomes on Ian's golf course and it's wet outside and you'd like to get through the round quickly, you know, just do yourself a favor. Be in front of them.

You know, and let them play right into the back of you. You know what I mean? I looked up Ian's handicap.

How could you do that? Because I didn't want Tom. You're in the gin? I'm on the gin.

I didn't want Tom. G-H-I-N for those. Explain to TJ Jefferson. It's a golf handicap index number. It's a way to level the playing field. If you're better than me, then the way to make it even is I get strokes. So you have a specific number. And that's why Marshall Faulk doesn't reveal what his number is, because if he can try and still get strokes off of you, despite him being better, he will attempt it. Or he will make sure you don't get as many strokes off of him as you're supposed to because he is playing a little okie doke. So courses are a different level of difficulty, so you may be a 10 at one course, but a 12 at a different course. So Ian's a 12.8, so I texted Tom, look, don't let him skim on giving you extra strokes.

Don't let him sandbag you is essentially what I was saying. No response from Tom yet. Well, maybe he's at the course and he's put his phone away because he's trying to be a good guest. In other golf news, Liv and the PGA Tour's memorandum of understanding got put out there and the athletic got it.

Nice. You'd think this contract, I guess, that was signed by both parties. I don't want to get too deep in the weeds here because it is a legal document. It is a, I imagine, binding document. And the reason why apparently it's out there is it was filed with the United States Senate, which is going to have a hearing on this matter in a couple of weeks in July. And so it's there in black and white. I don't know.

When you hear it six pages, it sounds a little light. Yeah. You know, don't you think like, you know, Liv Tour and the PGA Tour come together and you're dropping lawsuits.

I guess with prejudice, which means if this is or is it without prejudice, I shouldn't wade in these waters without knowing completely without, I think, meaning if it falls apart, you can't refile your lawsuits. So I don't know. When I first heard it, as you know, hold on a second. I'll give what appears to maybe a mea culpa is in order here.

I don't know. Because when this first came out, I'm like the Liv Tour is absolutely going to stay put. And the Saudis bought golf. That's what they did. When you hear that there is a new financial mechanism or construct for the PGA Tour and what was referred to in this document as NewCo, the new company, that when the lead and only exclusive investor in this organization and this lead and exclusive investor in this organization also controls who else is able to invest in the organization. That sounds like ownership to me, but there's a board for this new company and there's four people on it. And Jay Monahan's one. And two other PGA Tour individuals are the other two. And the fourth is the head of the PIF. Yasser.

Yes. Who is the, you know, His Excellency, as he's referred to from the Saudi royal government. Very powerful man. But this document essentially says what the Saudis have bought for this relationship, a seat at the table for the new PGA Tour construct. What they have bought is the naming rights to a couple of tournaments and a seat at the table. Yasser is going to be on the advisory board. That's about it.

That's like louder milk from the program. Now, there's also a communication committee that is amorphous that we don't know. That's that's the committee that's going to help communicate between the live tour and the PGA Tour to bring everyone together by 2024. And there's also a very amorphous and non detailed line or two about what players who are reapplying for tour membership, who lost it by going to live, what they must go through, or there's nothing concrete about it.

There weren't many details in the statement. Right. And the live tour, whether it lives or dies, is, according to this document, in the hands of Jay Monne. Who is now the CEO of this new company.

The chairman, however, is His Excellency. Yes. So. According to this document.

Yeah, it's going to be it's wild. So to me, I don't know. Did the Saudis not buy golf, as I was saying, since they're the ones who are the lead investors, the exclusive investors, the only investors who can control who else invests.

And they coughed up live. To the PGA Tour and drop their lawsuits. Yeah, they're going to look at the future, possibly at the team element, whether that can be used in the tour or whether it's still viable as live as a separate entity, which doesn't seem likely. Well, I mean, it's not worth a damn.

That's the other thing, too, is that mean you're right. Doesn't make any money. Neither organizations have been valued yet, which is another crucial aspect of it, because the valuation of these entities is going to eventually, when you plug it in, turn the crank of this formula, spit out the amount of money. That the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia is going to invest and put up as the seed money. It's expected, according to the athletic article, to be somewhere between two to three billion dollars, which is what caused the PGA Tour saying, OK, so you give us two to three billion and we are no longer competing with you. You're not going to be a drain on our resources for and sponsorships and our lawsuits.

And you will give us the control of live. All you want is a seat at the table and you name a couple of tournaments. And those might not even be on the PGA Tour. It could be on the DP Tour, you know, where your name is kind of like, you know, people don't bat an eyelash over in Europe.

If it's something Saudi that's on the on the on the tournament name, maybe that's what we do. And then that's it. Like, really? Really? So if that's the case, if this is the case and Kevin Van Valkenburg of no laying up, formerly ESPN is about to tell us that if this is in fact the case and this gets through. Auditors and gets through regulation and gets through approval and gets through the United States Senate, then what a major coup this is. Yep. For golf, with the exception of, you know.

Sports washing. There's that aspect of it, too, because also important what happens the next time something happens geopolitically involving Saudi Arabia that runs, shall we say, counter. To the interests of the United States or human rights. What happens then? So this is.

The way this document lays it out. I find it hard to believe unless the Saudis did not want. His Royal Highness to be.

In any way, shape or form, put under oath or anybody else in the royal family under oath and all they want to do, we just want to sit at the table as they go for maybe purchasing other tours, other places. You're reading about the ATP and tennis potentially being next for PIF to go knock on their door. And then what about the NBA, NHL, NFL? It's coming.

They're already everywhere. Formula One. Just trying to read this fine print here, because, again, when I first hear we're the only investors, we're the only people who will understand or be able to tell you who else invests. It's our money, right? It's your tour. It's our money.

Well, what eventually talks? The tour or money? Money. Because clearly money is what brought these two parties to finally to get together. And the fact that nobody wanted apparently a lawsuit and to be deposed. It just goes to show how much was unknown and unexplained when this was first announced. Which is kind of crazy because this document was signed a week before the announcement.

You'd think you'd be able to get a duck or two in a row. But they did such a dreadful job explaining it and part of that may be because there's really few details. Very few. As to how this does in fact work, and then once that finally rubber does meet the road, the Saudis are like, yeah, we don't really want to do this.

Or you really need to do that. Well, we have more board seats than you. Oh, okay. Well, there goes all our money. Bye-bye tour. And then what about the players having to come back? What, are they going to have to sit out a year? They're really going to sit out a year. You're going to sit them out a year. Give all the money back they took from the Saudis originally?

I don't think that's going to happen. What do you think? Somebody's going to give back 60, 70 million bucks like none of it's been spent? All of it's just sitting around?

That's a YB. No, no, no. There's no way. There's no way they're going to ask for every cent back like a clawback. Like the government's going to seize a boat. Why wouldn't Jay Monahan do that?

Hey, you made us all look bad two years ago. You want back? 100 million dollar check.

I'll stay at home. Yeah. 100 million.

That's kind of my career, more than my career earnings. So I'm good. So Kevin will bring this. There's lots to talk about with him, man. Yeah. I hope I did a decent enough job explaining a six page document that doesn't have many details, but this is the construct of it. I thought you did, Rich. Oh, God, whatever.

Thank you. And I don't mean to say that to you. I just I don't know. I mean, it sounded very. I didn't mean to. I'm not dismissing you. I'm just dismissing. No, no, no. I pardon. I apologize.

I did not mean to do that. I'm just dismissing this whole storyline that a country with a gajillion dollars can create its own league, forcing another sports league in the United States to capitulate and join up. But if the sports league does, in fact, still control how they run their own business. And the money coming in is somebody else's money. Then that is business wise, what you call a coup. Now, if you then take a look at whose money it is, then the whole thing is just filthy and it just makes you just want to vomit.

And it's so it still stinks back in the end. Eight, four, four, two or four rich number to dial. Let's come back. Kevin Van Valkenburg will join us to try and tell us some heads or tails about this. There's some Cleveland Cavaliers news in the ether.

Chris, on the eve of NBA. Seems like our old buddy Wendy is doing the point and thing again. OK, so we'll figure out what he's pointing about. Also on on this program, Lil Rel Howery will join us in studio in our number three.

There's a quote ascribed to Josh Allen. That is making the rounds here on a I guess nothing else to talk about Tuesday that got an eyebrow raised or two. So we'll talk about that.

And we have a new host of Wheel of Fortune. I know that. Oh, right.

It's Ryan Seacrest. Yeah. What? Yep.

Can he leave some jobs for the rest of us? You didn't know was Ryan Seacrest coming? I got to told you that about two weeks ago. Whoa, really? Yeah. I thought it was out there.

I mean, it's out there as of 20 minutes ago. Is he the only one available to host anything? Well, according to Sony, who is in charge?

He is with a guy sitting here. Dude, I would love to host about a hour or two. Oh, I thought you meant. No, no, no. Screw him. I love you. But it comes to game show hosting, though, you know, I've got to I'll shiv anybody. All right. We'll take it.

Chivaroy. Hey, for four to four rich number to dial. Kevin Van Valkenburg, no laying up editorial director telling us what in this world is this document between live and PGA Tour all about. I just learned discover credit cards do something pretty awesome at the end of your first year. They automatically double all the cash back you've earned. That's right. Everything you've earned doubled all the cash back from eating at your favorite soup dumpling restaurant doubled all the cash back from that trip where you sort of learn to snowboard.

Also doubled. And the best part, you don't have to do anything ridiculous to get it. Nope. Discover does it automatically. Seriously, though, see terms and check it out for yourself at discover dot com slash match. For decades, Rolling Stone has set the bar for entertainment publications. Today, Rolling Stone Music Now takes over in podcast form. Songwriter and producer Jamie Hartman reacts to the Ed Sheeran verdict. You need to create something new.

And of course, you're going to use traditional parts to get there. Are you going to sue the Rolling Stones for making a samba out of sympathy for the devil? Are you going to sue Elvis Presley for writing bars?

No, but it's like saying you're not allowed to use a pencil to create a piece of art. Rolling Stone Music Now, wherever you listen. All right, we're back here on our show.

Kevin Van Valkenburg will be joining us in in a couple of minutes before when our radio audience returns. So. So you knew the secret thing two weeks ago? Yeah.

This was honestly how we were friends. I heard it from so many people here in this town because my ears to the ground that I thought it was already common knowledge. I was surprised to hear that it was announced. Yeah. He he tweeted something about a half hour ago. There you go. Wow.

Seacrest in. What? What are you going to problem with him? You already see crest out.

Well, see crested out. This guy's been in our life for a very long time. Haven't we had enough of secrets to get somebody else in there? OK. Someone knew.

Who would you want? Some fresh. Yes, somebody looking for somebody. It's actually the easiest hosting job out of all the big hosting jobs.

If you think about the easiest gig in the world. You stand there and spin a wheel. You just read what you just read what the wheel is, right? Yeah. Yeah.

I'd like to buy it. And they made Vanna's job easier. She doesn't have to turn it. Yeah. She's touching. So is Vanna Stan? It's better on her. It's probably. I mean, she is better on the wrist.

Yeah, that's true. Is Vanna Stan? Is it going to be Vanna? Yes, she is. She is Stan. The letter Turner stays like before.

Yeah, the letter Turner stays like before. But Pat's out. By the way, Seacrest. Forty eight is Pat. I mean, who's gone on?

I mean, Pat used to be the weather guy here in Los Angeles. Yeah. And they're like, you know, let's just see.

Let's give him a shot. Wheel of Fortune. Fifty million private jet air hours later. What a gig. He's handing off the reins to Ryan Seacrest. Big hockey fan Pat Sajak.

Is that right? Rich, I'd like to see you get that job. I appreciate that, TJ. I'd love to have done it.

I want to give away a cash and a prize in the worst way. I know, man. I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.

Just don't have TJ on the show. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show radio network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger is the right product for you.

Call click Grainger dot com or just stop by. When I saw the PIF PGA Tour document on the athletic site last night, I just immediately started looking for explainers and I found one because I follow Kevin Van Valkenburg on Twitter. From no laying up Kevin Van Valkenburg back here on the Rich Eisen Show. How are you, Kevin? Rich, I'm good. I hope I can offer some clarity about this stuff.

But if you want to talk Wheel of Fortune, too, I'm up for that. Well, there is a vowel in PIF, you know, so that vowel appears to be buying, not being bought. So what what did this document tell you that you didn't already know, Kevin? Well, I think it confirmed a lot of what we had sort of heard, but it still kind of helps to see it in the language of sort of legality that, you know, when you sort of share reporting about this stuff and that the agreement basically is that the PGA Tour will still retain a voting interest in this stuff. Some people are just not going to believe you because they're like, oh, the money controls everything. Of course, the Saudis run professional golf.

Now, I think that's not specifically the case. Like we can certainly talk about the nuances of some of those things. But, you know, what this agreement sort of spelled out is that, you know, kind of what we had sort of understood going forward is that the giant evaluation of, you know, what they live golf is going to contribute to is this new company that's being formed that PGA Tour is going to be part of will then allow the PIF to sort of buy into an investment in that. So let's say that it's worth 10 billion dollars. The PIF wants to buy two billion dollars into that, that that will be their sort of investment going forward in it. And I think just all of that was kind of it was nice to see the actual language of it.

I know that the sort of agreement was kind of floating around a bunch of places, ended up getting, you know, pieces of it, whether it's The Athletic or The New York Times or us. But I hope that, like, we kind of try to look at it like, all right, what's the best way to explain this to our audience? So that was kind of our approach, because it just does a big like a big legal document dump.

It's not going to do a lot of good because most people are just going to hit you with the, you know, I'm sorry that happened or, you know, grateful they did. It was just too long to read things. Well, no. And I read the document and and then I said, I said, I need an explainer. Went to you.

You gave it to me. And that's one of the reasons why I immediately direct messaged you on Twitter saying, can you come and explain it to my my audience? Certainly, because I first blush when I heard about this arrangement when it was broken by CNBC, it did sound to me and felt like to me the Saudis bought golf since they are the sole exclusive investor and have every right to decide who else gets to invest. What does it matter about the board seats is my two cents.

So how does that sit with you when you hear that? I think what's the sort of nuanced thing is that is that they're not necessarily the sole investor who can sort of deny any other investment. What they have is the right to sort of be a co-investor with anyone who kind of comes to the BGA Tour or the PGA Tour, sort of goes and says, hey, we want to buy the LPGA Tour. If you have the right to sort of be a co-investor and if you want to pass on that, you're more than welcome to. But almost certainly it's going to say like, yes, we would love to invest a billion dollars in that. And so we're going to be partners in that going forward. So it's not like the PIF can say like, no, no, no, we don't think that you should be able to invest in this thing. We're going to block that.

That's not how it's going to work. And I think the way that's kind of what I would explain to people is like the Saudis are investors in a lot of things in American businesses, whether it's Uber or Disney or Nintendo or FedEx or whatever, worldwide businesses. And they're not like suddenly in control of Disney or they're not control of FedEx or control of Uber. They're investors because they want to sort of make money. They want to have influence and have a seat on the board and sort of help determine the direction of the help influence the direction of the company.

And mostly, I think, help bring further investment into Saudi Arabia for various projects that they're hoping to use as part of their vision 2030 proposal, which is to slowly kind of make the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia evolve away from being solely dependent on oil as a revenue source. Who are the other two board members on the new code? So the the governing body, who who who are these gentlemen that are on the on this board that you can explain the politics? There'll be four total board members, and I think that the board will grow eventually.

I think it's one of the details we don't know is eventually there'll be players on the board. But the initial sort of structured thing that's laid out, Jay Monahan is, as most people know, is the commissioner of the PGA Tour. But these two other gentlemen who kind of negotiated this deal, Jimmy Dunn and Ed Herlihy are two of the both the sort of biggest mergers and acquisitions finance people in the United States. They're both members of Augusta National. Jimmy Dunn is the president of Seminole Golf Club, which is sort of one of the premier golf clubs in Florida. They're kind of these big movers and shakers in the world of finance and also golf. Jimmy Dunn, as you some of the audience may remember, his firm was in the Twin Towers when the 9-11 happened and basically lost like, you know, some of his all of his co-workers.

He was out to qualify for the mid-am that day. And so he happened to not be in the office. And so his kind of story has kind of been connected to 9-11 for a long time because his mentor, his best friend died in the Twin Towers. Ed Herlihy is just one of the sort of, you know, he's the chairman of essentially the most profitable law firm in the entire world, really, in New York. And so these are guys who kind of work out these kind of mergers and acquisitions all the time as part of their work. And so they happen to sort of be policy advisors on the PGA Tour.

I think you could sort of say that, you know, they've been there for roughly six months or so and a little longer, like a year. And I think that essentially what happened was that they were sort of tasked either by Jay Monahan or by, you know, some people kind of think like that since they're both members of Augusta, that maybe Augusta was like, hey, man, could you get us out of this lawsuit? Who knows if that's true or not, but to sort of settle a deal like this to kind of make this legal dispute between PIF, between Liv and the PGA Tour kind of go away. And they were the ones who kind of negotiated this and then brought Jay to the table to sort of help finalize it once they got close.

And so thus Jay trusts them. And so this is why when we hear from Jimmy Dunn, like, hey, the Saudis didn't buy golf, and as a matter of fact, if anybody gives me hardcore proof that, you know, the Saudis had anything to do with 9-11, I'll fight them myself, you know. And so does that mean that these two gents, along with Jay Monahan, are in fact proof that the PGA Tour does in fact maintain control of its own destiny and its own business because they have three of the four board seats and it doesn't matter that His Excellency has the fourth from Saudi really?

Is that what you're saying? I think that that is the most likely reading of the situation. Now, like anybody who's watched Succession can sort of tell you that, like, board seats over time can sort of, you know, change hands, can become sort of malleable in terms of, you know, things being offered to various people.

You know, if you studied like what happened with Uber, like some of that sort of happened as well. You know, its original founder kind of got moved aside when he wasn't necessarily on board with what the board wanted. And I think that for Ed and Jimmy's case, their reputation within the world of golf is pretty important to them.

You don't get to be a member at Augusta or at Seminole or various other places without having sort of an important kind of, I think, reputation within the world of golf. And I think the last thing that they would want was to be seen as sort of you sold out this American institution. You know, I don't even know, you know, there's been no discussion about like what their their firms are even benefiting from this anyway. And I think it's almost likely that they're sort of doing this work kind of, you know, pro bono just for the sort of good of golf.

And so I think like I think it's very unlikely, certainly in the near future, that they've kind of given, you know, I honestly don't think and this is a little bit conjecture on my part that that's really ultimately like the Saudis goal. Like they just want to be involved in investment the same way that they're sort of involved in the Premier League or involved in F1 or involved in various other sporting entities around the world. They're not looking to sort of dominate and sort of have control. They just kind of want to be partners because they see it as not only a good investment financially, but as an investment sort of in their future of the country. Well, it's difficult for for me to grasp that, to be honest with you, Kevin Van Valkenburg, the editorial director of No Laying Up right here on The Rich Eisen Show.

It's difficult for me to to wrap my arms around that. And I think I'm speaking for a lot of golf fans and sports fans, especially since it did it appear the live tour was created with exactly that in mind. You know, to to go and compete and dominate and beat the PGA Tour. I mean, they they they conducted themselves in a what's the word for it? Would it be proper to say rapacious manner, you know, to go after Tiger? I mean, Jack.

I mean, like they went after everybody in in the most damaging way for the PGA Tour. So now now we're just now now we're all buddies because they got the seat at the table. And part of the seat at the table does appear in this document. Kevin, is that the live tour, whether it lives or dies, is now in the hands of of Ed Herlihy, Jimmy Dunn and Jay Monahan.

Really? Like that really just happened? Well, I think what you have to kind of understand is that the Saudis initially came to the PGA Tour like two years ago and sort of said, you know, we would love to have a meeting with you because we have like two billion dollars that we'd love to invest. And the PGA Tour brass wouldn't even take the meeting that they were basically like, no, we don't want any part of this.

We don't want to have foreign investment. And I think that that was sort of a naive reading of this. I mean, hindsight's pretty easy.

Like, I doubt that, you know, even people like me would have been like, yeah, that's a great idea in the mission because this was like right after the Khashoggi stuff when they sort of did this. But that's always kind of been their ultimate goal is to just be a part of it. Now, when the PGA Tour basically shut them out, I think that and they hired Greg Norman to sort of be the front facing person of this.

I think it was like kind of all all in. I'm like, all right, what can we do to, you know, basically like call them out and say we're working. We're in this for real. We're going to throw a ton of money at this. You know, I don't know how much of kind of this is like them ultimately trying to save some face. I mean, they live as much as they've sort of pumped money into it and stuff has not been any kind of financial success. You know, it's they can't get sponsorships. They've talked about, you know, selling these franchises, teams. You know, no one's stepping up to sort of pay the kind of amount of money that they want.

They're barely on television at all. You know, they're being preempted in tons of different markets. They're not able to sort of they haven't been able to sign any kind of big names this last year. So you could sort of look at it like, all right, they tried and they sort of reached a point of like almost success, but ultimately like didn't work out. And so I think in order to sort of save a little bit of faith and also for all of the lawsuit stuff to go away, once they kind of lost the lawsuit in sort of the Ninth Circuit Court that said that Yasser Al-Amaya and the chairman of the PIF would have to be deposed. I think that was a big red flag for them. And they're like, all right, how do we get out of this? Because that is not something that we've ever had to sort of face in all of our other investments in American companies. You know, they do not want to reveal a lot of stuff that they would have to sort of reveal if that for a deposition.

And I think that was kind of a way to be like, all right, you know, we we maybe got out of our skis a little bit here. And how do we make this kind of, you know, a win for both parties and making it go away? Editorial director, no laying off Kevin Van Valkenburg here on The Rich Eisen Show. So let's talk about next steps and what this document might reveal. Is is Liv dead?

I mean, as a doorknob or what? Yeah, I think, you know, you can never sort of say completely like, yeah, of course it's gone. Of course it's done. I mean, my instinct would be that it is unlikely that Liv will continue beyond 2023. That's certainly beyond 2024. Who knows kind of exactly how attached to the future of Liv Yasser Al-Amaya is? I think what the document says is that there's going to be, you know, an analysis, a database analysis about the future of Liv going forward. Now, anybody who sort of follows this stuff is kind of understand that Liv isn't making any money.

In fact, they've lost massive amounts of money. And so, you know, languages say we'll make a good faith assessment on the benefits of teen golf in general. I think that some kind of teen golf thing will survive. And so whether, you know, it sort of morphs into something else where, you know, Dustin Johnson still gets a team or Brooks Koepka still gets a team. And then eventually, like Tiger Woods has a team and Roy McElroy has a team. I could see that sort of being part of it going forward. I do not think that Liv, as it's currently structured, will exist at all, sort of competing against the PGA Tour. It's just silly to think that like the PGA Tour and Jay Monahan or whomever ended up in that chair, if Jay isn't coming back from this health scare that he's had, would want the PGA Tour to compete against itself for audience, for purses, for sponsors or anything like that. So I'd say most likely not. But, you know, there's other people out there who believe for sure that Yasser El-Raein is so invested in this, in this entity moving forward that, you know, maybe he could sort of say, look, we'll throw another $2 billion into this if this, you know, is kept around. Well, and I'd imagine for those Liv Tour players that do have Yasser's phone number, a few techs have gone in and say, hey, what's the plan on getting us back our Tour card here? Because I'm looking at this document and I don't see too much in there that lays out exactly how that's going to happen. And that is a huge aspect of this in order for everybody to get back together and play golf in the same organization.

Kevin, what do you got for me on that one? Yeah. So what we do know is that Liv can't recruit any more players basically through the end of 22. So if you were if you if you're one of these people who follows this stuff on Twitter and you still see rumors about like John Romm might go to Liv or Patrick Cantlin might go to Liv, that's not going to happen until at least until the end of 23. I think that it is very murky about how those players will be able to sort of apply for reinstatement and who will sort of make up the committee that decides what they sort of have to do to come back. Is it that they have to go start on the Korn Ferry Tour, that they've lost their status? Is it that they're eligible for equity that might be divided up amongst the players in this new sort of investment, this new business, new code they're calling right now? I don't think it's likely that they can actually find players.

I think that that's that was sort of something thrown around a while ago. You might have to pay back some of your stuff. I doubt that's going to happen. I think that it's more likely that this won't be eligible for certain bonuses. And I think that what's probably almost a certainty is that not all players who left for Liv will be treated equally. I think if I were Phil Mickelson and I wanted to play on the PGA Tour, which I don't know that he does anymore, I would be kind of nervous about that ever happening. Because if you're one of the players who filed a lawsuit against the PGA Tour and the members and they had to hire lawyers and do their own depositions and be dragged into this stuff, I think they're going to be pretty bitter about someone who left, got a bunch of money and basically has been calling out the sort of people over and over again and kind of antagonizing everyone. If I were Ian Poulter or Lee Westwood, I might say like, yeah, you know what, I don't know that I'm ever going to get to play PGA Tour golf again. But if you're Brooks Koepko or Dustin Johnson or Cam Smith or somebody who's kind of gone about their business and hasn't tried to pick fights and hasn't sort of joined the lawsuit, I think eventually you will see them back.

And what that kind of path is, I don't know. But I think that, you know, the most of the players probably want them back for the betterment of the whole product. And then, of course, the whole idea whether this deal gets to, you know, a shot to go through or stays intact. Big date coming up on July 11th, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ranking Member Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, has invited Jay Monahan, Yasser Al-Rumiyan and Greg Norman to appear in front of that committee. I imagine His Excellency has no intention of appearing in front of the United States Senate. What about everything else here? How does this document stand up?

Unless I shouldn't put words in Yasser's mouth here or his hand raised. I'm just wondering, what do you got for me there on that? I think that's the biggest unknown of all is like what the sort of, you know, congressional oversight and the Justice Department oversight will kind of feel about this agreement. There's a lot of people that feel like initially and certainly based on, you know, Jay Monahan said something afterwards, like it was a chance for us to take a competitor off the board, that there's no way that would pass regulatory muster.

That these two, you know, entities that were previously fighting in court over the idea of whether they're a monopoly, that them joining forces would certainly make them a monopoly. And there's obviously like a lot of tension around the politics of it. You know, the PGA Tour were the people who brought the 9-11 families into the sort of discussion and kind of use them as an emotional, you know, sort of prop to hope to rally their players and their support against, you know, live. And now, you know, that's upset a lot of people in Congress who really don't care about the golf future of it. They want to sort of make it clear that they're the sort of ultimate kind of deciders in all this.

And so you're right. I don't I don't suspect that Yasser Elramayim would sit and answer questions in front of Congress. And whether that further enrages people who are going to have to kind of approve this stuff was kind of fascinating to see it play out. I think that the document here that we sort of saw is purposely vague in those for those reasons, because they don't have a lot of the details. And even like today, the players are seeing some of the details for the first time. So it's kind of fascinating to think that like some of the stuff the players didn't even know while the media was still getting a look at it.

And they're ultimately the ones who have to vote to kind of help it move forward with the policy board. So all of that is like, you know, the Rumsfeld thing of like known unknown. That's definitely a known unknown going forward is how ultimately, you know, hard Congress is going to sort of push this investigative stuff, because ultimately, like the United States wants to play nice with the Saudis. There's a reason that like Tony Blinken was just in Riyadh, the secretary of state. And so they're not there's going to be pressure from the administration, from other members of Congress who are pushing back on this stuff to not, you know, sort of block this deal, because ultimately our country is still beholden to oil in a lot of ways. Yeah, I mean, the ultimate most important piece of information is not known right now, which is the valuation of the PGA Tour and the Live Tour that spits out a number that the Saudis are going to put on the table.

Like, we don't even know that number, assuming it starts with a two, might be starting with a three and billions. And then just, you know, there's a couple of names that are left blank, right, for a crucial committee that's being formed to have both the Live and PGA Tour interface, right? Am I not mistaken as well? No, you're correct. And also, let's not like I mentioned this before, but like we don't even know if Jay Monahan is actually going to be around to be the commissioner of this whole thing or the CEO, I guess.

Right. You know, we know that Yasser is going to be the chairman, but, you know, he's also the chairman of Newcastle United. He's the chairman, you know, he basically runs Aramco, which is the state run oil company. He's involved in a lot of things. And so you actually it's not like Yasser can step in and say like, all right, well, I'll run the day to day operations of NewCo. Like that's not going to happen.

He has too many other sort of things going on here. So if Jay's not able to sort of continue going forward or if the players are in too much of an uproar and they don't want him, you know, who's going to step in and take that position? I doubt it's going to be like Jimmy Dunn or Ed Herlihy. They're going to have to find someone likely from outside the organization to do it. And what does that mean going forward? Like, is that person going to sort of evaluate things the same way that Jay might? It's all going to play out, I think, over the next six months or a year.

Like, we're just sort of in the beginning of this much less. And if the let's say the agreement falls apart, like, what does that mean? You know, in terms of like this agreement says they can't sue each other over again, that the lawsuits are done. But, you know, if six months from now, the Saudi is like, all right, well, that didn't work out.

And we're glad that we're not being sued anymore, but we're still going to go and try to sign Jon Rahm. Like, that will sort of upend things again. Wow. All right. Last one for you, Kevin. I know we've spoken a while, but conversations like this and subject matters that are difficult to understand, I'm mandated to say, did I ask everything? Is there something I didn't ask that I should know? Kevin?

I pretty much nailed it. I mean, one thing that was sort of in the document that we were a little bit surprised by is that this agreement that they signed was essentially a week before they went on CNBC and talked about it. And not well.

And not well. They didn't talk about it well at all. Like, they didn't have a duck in a row, man.

It was crazy. They had a week to get their stuff straight and they couldn't do it, which I don't think speaks, you know, particularly well to the kind of the rollout and the messaging of this stuff. I think they've been surprised by some of the anger. I know they've been surprised by some of the anger that the players are facing. And so, you know, the messaging is a pretty important part of a merger, and especially when you have a policy board that has to vote to approve this kind of stuff. And, you know, you have Rory McIlroy, who's been sort of like your biggest weapon in this for the PGA Tour, said he feels like a sacrificial lamb and he was blindsided by the whole thing. There's a lot that's still kind of complicated going forward. Kevin, thanks for the time. Great explainer on your site.

No laying up. And then, of course, for the time here. Look for more of my calls. Thanks again, sir. Great stuff. Thank you.

It's Kevin Van Valkenburg. Everyone check out No Laying Up. Lots to digest. Let's take a break. We're back with more right here on The Rich Eisen Show. What would they do?

They detain you and get people on the phone and then they finally let you go to your modeling job. How many times does it happen? Once or twice. It just seems like it wouldn't happen. It happens.

Yeah. Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum, wherever you listen. Eric Braden here on The Rich Eisen Show. We have printed out three of the great sports rants of all time. And we would love for you to do your best Victor Newman. The first one is Herm Edwards. Yes, Herm Edwards.

The first one up Herm Edwards on October 30th, 2002, after a week eight loss to the Cleveland Browns. Here is play to win the game as told by Victor Newman. This is great about sports. This is what's the greatest thing about sports is you play to win.

Hello. You play to win the damn game, right? You don't play just to play it. That's the great thing about sports.

You play to win. An October 16th, 2006, after the Cardinals blew a 20 point lead against the Bears on Monday Night Football. Oh, man.

Dennis Green. They are who we thought they were, as portrayed by Victor Newman. Bears are who we thought they were. You know, that's why we took the damn field. Now, if you want to crown them, then crown their ass. But they are who we thought they were.

And we let them off the damn hook. Good. Very well done. All right. Last one. I can feel it.

I'm glad that we got it rolling because here's the last one I can feel on May 7th, 2002. The famed practice press conference of one Allen Iverson, as recounted by the man who plays Victor Newman, Eric Braden. I mean, listen, you're talking about practice, OK? Not a game. Not a game. Not a game. All right. You're talking about practice.

I mean, how silly is that? I know it's important. Yeah, I do. I do. I do.

I honestly do. You're talking about practice, man. What are we talking about? Practice. You're talking about practice, man.

Even today, it still deserves a round of applause. Back here on the Rich Iverson Show. All right, Chris, you're the golf nut here in the house.

What do you got? What do you make of that? I think there's still so much that's unknown. I think the one thing we do know is that live is most likely over. How in the world does it survive if you're the PGA Tour and they took? I mean, first of all, first things first, I hope Jay Monahan is OK. My goodness gracious.

And if there's a health scare that is not something that is if part of this health scare can be diagnosed to stress. Oh, my gosh. We don't know what it is.

And I hope he is OK. But how in the world do they not exact their revenge? Do they not basically say lives out? You got a seat at the table, but lives out.

We are the ones who are now in control of the board seats and see you later. And by the way, anybody that suit us, you might have to add another half a year onto whatever suspension you serve to get back. And a fine. I know Kevin mentioned, you know, maybe not being eligible for certain financial rewards at the end of the season. That's probably out for all of those guys in a weird way.

I kind of feel bad for Greg Norman. Oh, wow. OK, just just kind of in a weird way.

I told five minutes before the announcement that this was taking place. And now she thinks for Greg Norman, he thinks he's building up something just to be kicked to the curb and kind of used as a Saudi pawn to get into the golf world. I got it. I see what you say.

Google Greg Norman's yacht. Yes, I understand all of that. And the clothing and the wine. I get it. It'll be all right.

It's just kind of interesting to see what the future of golf is going to look like kind of beyond this year. Well, certainly if this thing falls apart. Right. Then what? Then what happens?

Then with is still around. Dude, if I if the U.S. Senate says we want to see Jay Monahan, he's like, I'm not well. And they're like, OK, they want to see Yasser.

And they want to see Greg Norman. And and one's like, you know, I'm you know, I'm a I'm a Saudi national and other ones. And I'm an Aussie. You know, I appreciate the subpoena. Yeah, but no, but no.

You know, and how do you think the U.S. Senate is going to take that information? But let's not that that's a cart before the horse that's happening on July 11th. I think the idea of bringing some sort of team element, whether it's specialized tournaments, I think that could be really during the NFL season. Yeah.

During like the throes of the NFL season, November, December. Well, next year, we are going to have the Monday night kind of Tiger Rory, kind of like video game stadium. Yeah, the Red Sox owners were a part of that.

Yeah, that's coming. You won't boycott that just because that's money that could go towards the starting pitcher. It just further proves my point that they don't care about the team. They care about other things.

Fine. But, you know, to take the live kind of team element and put that into a separate sort of thing, that could be that could be kind of fun and interesting. But, you know, I just want as a golf fan, I want to see the best players playing in the best tournaments against each other. But all four?

More than not. And four days of 18 holes? I want four days of 18 holes. That's what I want.

No, over and over and over again. You're not one of those types that's just like... Not over and over, not over and over, but like in the big events. I want majors and I want, you know, maybe not this elevated schedule that they tried this year while it was ambitious.

Their head was in kind of the right place. Just kind of less of those, maybe 10 tournaments a year with the biggest, biggest names. Head to head over four days.

As a golf fan, that's what I want because we're going to get true, deserving champions. I don't think this thing's going to... I don't think this thing's going to pass.

It's too... Certainly in this document, if you're sitting there in the U.S. Senate, you're like, so how much is the valuation? How much? And who's this? What's this board? What is it?

What is going to be your plan to let live tour players back on the tour? You know there'll be some senators up there like are going to cape for Phil or something like that. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's weird.

I don't know. There's going to be a lot of questions that I don't think are going to get answered with a hand in the air. And a lot of U.S. senators might be like, get out of here. Or come back another time. Yeah, role reversing here, Rich.

That's not an overreaction that it's not going to pass. 844-204, Rich. Number to dial right here on The Rich Eisen Show. And we'll take your calls at the top of the next hour before Lil Rel Howery joins us here on The Rich Eisen Show. He is here in studio talking about the same film that Adam Devine talked about last Friday. The Outlaws coming to Netflix in a couple of Fridays on July 7th. By the way, Netflix, seen right here on Roku. Same thing with Formula E racing next year with The Rich Eisen Show car being driven by somebody not named Mike Del Tufo.

I've already been told you're out. That's from above. Although, I got to tell you, this guy is one of the best rides to the airport I've ever had.

Yeah, exactly. But Mike, that's 15 miles an hour to the airport. Five stars. Five stars.

I can make it through that traffic. Five stars. Five stars. I give him five stars, by the way. Your driver didn't talk too much for you? The thing is, you need somebody who's in the far left lane and their exit's in an eighth of a mile and you've got to cross five lanes of traffic.

I'm your guy. But have you ever driven an electric car? Ah, he's out.

What's the difference? Oh, no, no, no, no. Regenerative braking? Yeah. Which I imagine is not in any of these Formula E cars.

No. Can you imagine all of a sudden the car just stops right in the middle of a turn and you're like, well, I took my foot off the gas. Regenerative braking. I think I need to learn a little bit more about Formula E. Yeah. We can take class. We need to get out to the track. Yes. They just had a race up in Portland. That's what I'm saying. R.E.S.

day. Dude, 11 races coming to the Roku channel next year. That's going to be awesome. One of them's got to be here, right? There we go. Fontana?

Can we get a second screen viewing of us calling the race? Maybe. Yeah. Everything's open. Everything's on the table.

That's what I'm saying. Eyes in Formula E Plus. Yeah, sure.

Formula E Plus. Absolutely. Yes. Mike, you can drive the pace car. I'll do that. By the way.

I'll do the pace car. No question about it, though. If you just look at the archives, Chris Brockman and I both took a ride with Mario Andretti in Long Beach, California. Which one looked like he was wetting himself and which one did not? Both of you.

No. That guy. I mean, I... His eyes were wide.

Like, oh my God. Because I wasn't the one driving. I know that.

So, neither was I. It was Mario Andretti. I'm a bad passenger.

Great driver. I used to do 100 miles an hour with the police car, going to a call. What? And then you got fired. I did. For being drunk. Jeez. conspiracy theories paranormal UFOs science teacher Andrew Greenwood stated that a child ran into his classroom and was hysterically screaming and talking about the flying saucer outside hundreds of children ran out of their classrooms to go outside and see this unidentified flying object that was just above the school. Just imagine. Bunch of kids running out of school.

Most of them probably just ran home. Police of the third kind on YouTube or wherever you listen.