Cicala, Corcoran Examine the Intersection of Sports, Economics and Geopolitics of PGA Tour/LIV Golf Merger

07.12.2023

Stinson LLP Partners Cris Cicala and Kieran Corcoran authored an article for the New York Law Journal, "Controversy, Criticism, Profit – PGA and LIV Golf Merger Leaves Many Unanswered Questions."

The article examines the merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf (PGA/LIV), explores the potential legal ramifications the merger will bring and details how the merger may affect business, including how fans will be affected.

"It seems more than likely that the consummation of this transaction will result in the creation of a new golf super league," the attorneys write. "We've seen previous versions of these sports back pages: the upstart league levels the playing field, literally, by adding competition and innovation and changes the landscape. But have we ever seen something like this?"

Cicala and Corcoran point to past cases involving the unification of large sports organizations, including the merger of the American Football League with the National Football League, the American Basketball Association merging with the National Basketball Association and the World Hockey Association merging with the National Hockey League. And though these past sports mergers share similar legal and business issues as the PGA/LIV merger, the attorneys say "not before now have we seen a rival sports league with seemingly unlimited funding and an unquenchable desire to score in the international arena, and not before have we seen a situation sit so squarely at the intersection of sports, economics, and geopolitics."

With the full details of the PGA/LIV business combination not yet released to the public, the attorneys write that "it will be difficult to explain the PGA Tour's abrupt change in game plan of teaming up with its previously-sworn rival, particularly a rival who it publicly disavowed on the grounds that go well beyond differences in approach to the sport of golf or business practices."

Cicala is a real estate and finance attorney with a business operator mindset. He focuses his multifaceted practice on providing corporations, financial institutions and investment funds, real estate developers, media companies and entrepreneurs with practical and strategic legal advice.

Corcoran is known for his business and real estate litigation experience involving high-value, CMBS loan foreclosure and guaranty enforcement, EB-5 fraud and financing disputes and complex commercial transactions regarding finance, competition and intellectual property.

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