LIV Golf isn't the only sports property being reconsidered in Saudi reboot of investment strategy

The billionaires in Saudi Arabia are pulling the plug on LIV Golf. It won’t be the first mega sports project they’ve given up on recently.

Over the last several weeks, the Saudis have bailed on a Winter Olympics-style sports festival and sold one of their best soccer teams, all while shifting the strategy of their multibillion-dollar investment fund that bankrolls it all.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund, helmed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, recently delivered a new prospectus outlining its strategy for 2026-30. The strategy focuses on more internal investment while “maximizing financial returns, strengthening investment efficiency and increasing private sector participation.”

The ultimate goal is to fulfill the prince's “Vision 2030,” which seeks to enhance and overhaul Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure and make tourism a more focal point of an oil-based economy.

It follows an era in which the fund poured staggering sums of money into various sports ventures around the world. Soccer has been a centerpiece — the country is hosting the 2034 World Cup, while PIF owns a majority stake in Newcastle of the Premier League and bolsters the Saudi Pro League. The fund has also spent big on men's and women's pro tennis, Formula 1, boxing and more.

LIV Golf, though not the most expensive, is the highest profile among them; the fund has reportedly poured some $5 billion into LIV without receiving any return.

“For the past two years, we've seen the beginning of the scaling back of some of the mega projects that were announced in 2021, 2022,” Kristian Ulrichsen, a Middle East expert at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy “That's exactly when LIV Golf began, as well.”

The PIF announced Thursday it would withdraw funding for LIV Golf after 2026, ending weeks of speculation and reporting that the Saudis were about to cut the cord. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor who was behind the creation of LIV Golf, is no longer listed as chairman of LIV Golf amid reports he has resigned from that role.

Staff and players have been aware for the last two weeks the PIF was only going to support LIV Golf through the end of this year. LIV responded with a new board and a plan to diversify into an investment model with hopes of finding long-term partners.

The PIF's deep pockets were integral for LIV in prying some of the sport's best players from the PGA Tour. It spent $1 billion to land the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith and eventually Jon Rahm, the last big signing at the end of 2023.

In an interview earlier this week with The Wall Street Journal, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said: “We’re interested in having the best players who can help our tour. Not every player can do that.”

Already, five-time major winner Koepka has moved back to the tour from LIV, and Masters champion Patrick Reed plans to return later this year.

About three months ago, Saudi Arabia scaled back plans for a futuristic super-city project called The Line inside a bigger project called “Neom” that was supposed to span more than 100 miles and run from the Red Sea across the desert mountains.

One feature of the project was a resort called Trojena, which was envisioned as a year-round ski resort that would host the 2029 Asian Winter Games (which themselves were moved instead to Kazakhstan). It could have served as a dress rehearsal for future Olympics or, at the very least, the 2034 World Cup that has already been awarded to the kingdom.

More recently, PIF sold 70% of its Saudi Pro League soccer club Al-Hilal to a company owned by Saudi royalty, a move that sent shock waves through that sport — namely raising questions as to whether the fund was still committed to Newcastle of the English Premier League, of which it owns about 85%.

"Whether due to the war or reasons related to economic feasibility, we continuously reassess our priorities,” Al-Rumayyan told the state-owned Al Arabiya news channel shortly after the Al-Hilal sale.

Mohammed Soliman, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, told The Associated Press “Saudi Arabia is constantly reassessing its priorities, and its investment strategy will shift accordingly."

“The PIF has always been a vehicle of national transformation first, global sports deals were part of that story, but so is pulling capital closer to home when the moment calls for it,” Soliman said.

There's a healthy debate over what impact the U.S. war in Iran is having on the Saudi decision-making.

Some of these decisions — such as the scaling back of the Neom project — were being made earlier in the year when a barrel of oil was selling for $60 — a lower price that can cause the country to endure budget deficits that might have to be financed by cutting into profits of Aramco, the country's national oil producer.

The war, meanwhile, raised oil prices to above $100 but reduced the Saudis' ability to sell it while Iran and the U.S. battle over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the key chokepoint through which up to 25% of the world's oil must pass.

“Ironically, the fact that the Saudis are still able to export maybe two-thirds of their oil at much higher prices over the last six weeks maybe actually means that their revenues may have gone up,” Ulrichsen said. “But this won’t be forever. The war has definitely heightened the element of uncertainty, and the closer it gets to 2030, the more they’ll want to deliver one or two key things, rather than maybe falling short on six or seven in general.”

The Saudis have made major inroads into sports other than golf and soccer.

They are in the last of a three-year contract to host a $15 million season-ending tournament on the Women's Tennis Association. The PIF has naming rights for both the WTA and the men's ATP tour.

Saudi Arabia has hosted the Dakar Rally and an F1 event came to the country in 2021. (It was cancelled this year because of the war.)

It has shown interest in hosting the Summer Olympics, maybe as soon as 2036.

All that pales in comparison to its biggest sports undertaking — hosting the World Cup in 2034. That project calls for building 10 or 11 new stadiums across the country, including one in Neom that is planned to hover a quarter-mile above ground.

All those stadiums and all that investment make LIV's $5 billion look small. Still, it hasn't gone unnoticed that the vision LIV began with — as a league that would create teams, then sell them to make the endeavor profitable — hasn't materialized.

“The expense is not on the scale of what they spent on The Line or the (Asian) winter games,” Ulrichsen said. “But it’s significant, and I don't think there's an appetite for the prospect of losses continuing for at least another five or 10 years.”

AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson contributed to this report.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

FILE - Captain Bryson DeChambeau, of Crushers GC, waves to the fans at the 17th tee during the third round of LIV Golf South Africa at The Club at Steyn City, Saturday, March 21, 2026 in Midrand, South Africa. (Pedro Salado/LIV Golf via AP, File)

FILE - LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, left, applauds Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Governor of Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, at the LIV Golf Invitational-Chicago tournament Sept. 18, 2022, in Sugar Hill, Ill. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

FILE - A general view of the 18th hole flag pole during the first round of LIV Golf Jeddah at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, Friday, March 1, 2024 in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia. (Matthew Harris/LIV Golf via AP, File)

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana suspended its congressional primaries Thursday as early voting was about to get underway, while pressure mounted on Republican officials in other states to redraw their U.S. House maps in light of a Supreme Court ruling that significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act.

Early voting had been scheduled to begin Saturday for Louisiana's May 16 primaries. But Republican Gov. Jeff Landry issued an executive order postponing the U.S. House primary in response to a ruling Wednesday by the court that struck down a majority Black congressional district.

“Allowing elections to proceed under an unconstitutional map would undermine the integrity of our system and violate the rights of our voters,” Landry stated. “This executive order ensures we uphold the rule of law while giving the Legislature the time it needs to pass a fair and lawful congressional map.”

The Republican-controlled secretary of state's office, which declared an electoral emergency allowing for Landry's order, said it would post notices at early voting sites alerting the public about the suspended congressional primary. All other races on the ballot will proceed as scheduled.

The Supreme Court decision and Landry's move triggered a flurry of follow-up legal action. On Thursday night, the three-judge federal appeals court panel that heard the initial case that was appealed to the high court issued a brief order suspending Louisiana's House election until new maps are drawn — a move some legal experts said was premature. Marc Elias, a prominent Democratic election attorney, announced the filing of a lawsuit challenging Landry's order.

The governor's order postponed the congressional primary until either July 15 or a date to be set by the Legislature. The state's Republican House and Senate leaders said they are prepared to pass new congressional voting districts — and set a new election date — before their regular session ends in a month.

President Donald Trump used his social media platform to praise Landry, who also is his special envoy to Greenland, for moving quickly to revise the state's congressional districts. He also urged Republicans in Tennessee to do likewise in response to the Supreme Court's decision.

While civil rights activists denounced the potential for diminished minority representation in Congress, top Republicans cited the Supreme Court's decision as justification to spur an already intense national redistricting battle among states before the November elections.

“I think all states who have unconstitutional maps should look at that very carefully, and I think they should do it before the midterm,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters in Washington.

The election suspension in Louisiana was denounced by some Democrats.

“This is going to cause mass confusion among voters -- Democrats, Republicans, white, Black, everybody,” said Louisiana state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents the New Orleans area. “What they’re effectively doing is changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game. It’s rigging the system.”

Delaying an election is unusual but not unprecedented.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, several states pushed back elections because of health concerns. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who led Louisiana at the time, postponed the state's April 4 presidential primary three weeks before it was supposed to occur — then delayed it again until July 11.

Louisiana currently is represented in the U.S. House by four Republicans and two Democrats. A revised map could give Republicans a chance to pick up at least one more seat in the November midterms — adding to Republican gains elsewhere from redistricting.

Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump last year urged Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states.

On Wednesday, Florida lawmakers became the latest to redraw U.S. House districts, adopting a new map backed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that could give the GOP a chance at winning several additional seats.

The Florida vote occurred just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority issued a ruling that significantly weakened minority protections under the federal Voting Rights Act. The court said Louisiana officials had relied too heavily on race when drawing a congressional district that is represented by Democrat Cleo Fields.

Trump said he wants Tennessee to take up redistricting in response to the court's ruling. The president posted on social media that he had spoken with the state's Republican governor, Bill Lee, who he said would work hard for a new map that could help Republicans gain an additional seat. Democrats currently hold only one of the state's nine House seats — a district centered in Memphis, which is majority Black.

Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, said he is in conversations with the White House and others while reviewing the court's decision.

After the 2020 census, Louisiana officials had drawn House voting district boundaries that maintained one Black majority district and five mostly white districts, in a state with a population that is about one-third Black. A federal judge later struck down the map for violating the Voting Rights Act.

The following year, the Supreme Court found that Alabama had to create a second congressional district that would be favorable to Black voters.

Federal judges permanently barred Alabama from using a congressional map drawn by state lawmakers and ordered the use of a plan that added a second district with a substantial number of Black voters.

On Thursday, Alabama filed an emergency motion with the Supreme Court seeking an expedited review of its appeal. The state is seeking to lift the injunction blocking the use of the 2023 map drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature that did not include the new district.

Louisiana’s legislature and governor adopted a new House map in 2024 that created a second Black majority district. But that map also was subsequently challenged in court, leading to the most recent Supreme Court ruling.

After the ruling, Landry called U.S. House candidates on Wednesday and told them that primaries would most likely be stalled, according to Misti Cordell, a Republican running in a crowded race to fill U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow’s vacated seat.

“It’s an inconvenience for a candidate for sure, but you know they want to do it right versus having to go through all this again,” Cordell said. She added that she appreciated the heads up before she and other candidates began “spending their war chest” during the final weeks leading up to Election Day.

Brook reported from New Orleans and Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. AP reporter Travis Loller contributed from Nashville.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and members of the Congressional Black Caucus speak to reporters in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling to strike down a majority Black congressional district in Louisiana, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)