LIV Golf filed for bankruptcy the day before this segment, and Randall Williams' summary of the mood at the league it was built to destroy was that the PGA Tour is thrilled.
The merger the two sides reached was supposed to end that fight. Williams said the PGA Tour instead used the time to rebuild itself, and then let the challenger fail — the tour's chief executive told this same studio there is no merger, and that the tour could have rescued LIV's business if it had wanted to.
"LIV Golf's purpose was to destroy the PGA Tour and to be a direct competitor, and that's why they had the merger. That didn't happen, and now that died, and now LIV Golf is on its last life."
Williams covers the business of sports for Bloomberg News and co-hosts the Business of Sports podcast, and had the PGA Tour's chief executive in the studio for an on-the-record answer about the merger.
I listened to the full segment so you can skip it.
Here are the 5 insights that matter.
👤 Guest: Randall Williams, Senior Reporter at Bloomberg News and co-host of the Business of Sports podcast
🎙️ Hosts: Carol Masser and Tim Stenovek, who co-host Bloomberg Businessweek Daily on Bloomberg Radio
📰 Published: 9 September 2026 on the Bloomberg Businessweek Daily podcast feed
🟣 Apple Podcasts | 🔗 Episode page | ⏱️ 44 min
Key Takeaways
LIV Golf's bankruptcy follows the challenger-league pattern the XFL set, and Williams says nobody is coming to rescue it
He expects another iteration next year rather than a revival of this one
The PGA Tour could have saved LIV's business and decided not to, according to what its chief executive said on this show
Competition is what rebuilt the PGA Tour, and it happened faster than anyone expected
The NFL's 18th game is a labor question, not a schedule question — the players' union is not obliged to reopen the agreement early
A US Open match ending at 3:30 in the morning is a media-rights problem, because the tournament is still a television product
1. LIV Golf's Engine Fell Off
LIV Golf filed for bankruptcy the day before the segment, after arriving with what Masser described as the promise to disrupt global golf as everyone knew it.
Williams has been describing LIV with a rocket-ship comparison and extended it: a spacecraft launches on a $5 billion engine, the engine falls away, and the only question left is whether the vehicle carries on into orbit or comes back down. "And I think that slowly but surely, throughout the course of the summer, LIV fell back down, and now we are at bankruptcy."
"I don't think anybody's coming to save him," Williams said, and he does not expect a rescue to appear now that the filing is public
He does expect another iteration of the venture next year, rather than this one continuing
2. The PGA Tour Let It Die
Williams put the collapse in the category of challenger leagues that set out to displace an incumbent, which is where Stenovek's NFL comparison landed.
The precedent he reached for was the XFL, which now exists as the UFL and, in his words, "isn't really directly looking to compete with the NFL"
"LIV Golf's purpose was to destroy the PGA Tour and to be a direct competitor, and that's why they had the merger. That didn't happen, and now that died, and now LIV Golf is on its last life." — Randall Williams
The incumbent's answer, he said, is that "The PGA Tour is thrilled"
The tour used the fight to rebuild itself, and Williams cited the tour's chief executive, who sat in the same studio not long ago and said "there is no merger"
His account of that conversation is that the tour could have saved LIV's business if it had been interested, and did not
Williams' reading is that the episode makes the case for competition rather than against it: the PGA Tour, he said, revitalized far faster than people expected
Asked whether the players will be friends again, he said he is not so sure
3. The 18th Game Needs a CBA
The NFL season was kicking off that night, and Masser raised the league's push to add games.
Roger Goodell has sold the extra game to fans on the promise that the Super Bowl would land on the Sunday before Presidents Day, making it a national holiday — a picture Williams pointed out is already true this season, because the Super Bowl falls on Valentine's Day
The obstacle is labor: "He would like to add an 18th game. They need to negotiate with the Players Association, which hasn't been ready. And they aren't obligated to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement early." — Randall Williams
Asked whether an 18th game is healthy for players, Williams said "Of course not. More football."
He credited the league and the union with spending heavily on helmet technology, which is rolling out more widely
"But the reality is that outside of combat sports, there probably isn't anything else except for maybe rugby that is as harsh on the body as football." — Randall Williams
4. Messi Buys In Again
Lionel Messi is adding to his ownership position in a Spanish club, which Williams treated as the normal next step for an athlete with a long life after playing.
Messi is a billionaire with a career-length horizon still ahead of him, and is deciding where to put the money
"Of course, he has Inter Miami that he's heavily involved in, and we'll see where else he's going to decide to spend that cash." — Randall Williams
The pattern is established: "You think Michael Jordan, you think all players actively investing in clubs and teams. This is just another iteration of that."
What Williams wants to know is whether Messi will be a visible owner, because "Messi, of course, does not do a lot of press conferences" — he has not held one since his opening appearance with Inter Miami
"Because you welcome someone like Lionel Messi into your ownership group and now, all of a sudden, that's all anybody wants to talk about." — Randall Williams
Masser noted Messi belongs to the small group of athletes estimated to be worth a billion dollars, on investments and sponsorships, and that she had bought her son a Messi Lego set he presumably earns a cut of
5. A 3:30 A.M. Media Problem
The Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton match at the US Open was still being played at 3:30 in the morning, and both Masser and Williams had gone to bed before it was decided.
Williams said the tournament is scheduling for the people in the building at the expense of the audience at home: "It is still a TV product at the end of the day."
He could not watch it and is expected to talk about it: "If I'm expected to talk about it, you want me to stay up until 3.30 in the morning? That's a serious issue"
The commercial consequence is the one he cares about: "the bigger issue is media rights," because an American star playing at 3:30 in the morning is not a product a rights holder can sell, and Williams asked, "That's supposed to inspire the next generation of tennis athletes? I don't think so."
"But the event, the U.S. Open, of course, is extremely successful, but you have to find balance in being the epicenter of sports culture and also optimizing business. And the balance is off right now." — Randall Williams
Bonus Insights
Williams is co-hosting Bloomberg's Power Players event at the company's headquarters the following day with Vanessa Perdomo-Maglione, for the first time. The names he listed include Jake Paul, Michael Strahan, Constance Schwartz-Marini, Carolyn Tish Blodgett and the basketball Hall of Famer Swin Cash, plus a Yankees executive on college sports; Jason Kelly and A-Rod are recording a live taping with Serena Williams' husband. Asked who draws the biggest crowd, Williams predicted a surprise arrival instead of naming anyone
Masser said her interest in sports has been transformed by three things: Williams himself, a child obsessed with sports, and six months of living in New York
Stenovek's contribution to the health debate was to bring on AI players and robots, which Williams declined, and to note that sports is the one thing that saves us from AI
Stenovek asked whether LIV had any mulligans left; Williams' answer was that there is nobody left to give it one
Stenovek said what he enjoys most at the event is watching which snacks the panelists take with them on the way out
Williams' bottom line is that competition worked exactly as advertised in golf — it forced the incumbent to improve, and then the incumbent outlasted the challenger.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
LIV Golf (Filed for bankruptcy the day before the segment; Williams said its purpose was to destroy the PGA Tour and that it is now on its last life)
PGA Tour (Revitalized itself faster than expected under the challenge, and its chief executive told this show there is no merger)
NFL and the NFL Players Association (The 18th game needs a new collective bargaining agreement, which Williams said the union is not obliged to negotiate early)
The XFL and the UFL (Williams' precedent for a challenger league that gave up on direct competition with the incumbent)
Inter Miami (Messi's existing club investment, against which Williams weighed his move into a Spanish team)
US Open (Extremely successful as an event, Williams said, but scheduling matches at 3:30 in the morning is a media-rights problem)
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