LIV Golf Alleges PGA Tour Exec Illegally Killed TV Deals

Court filings by LIV Golf and the PGA Tour as part of their civil antitrust case reveal how much work it took for LIV to land television partners in the U.S. and worldwide.

Documents filed in federal court late Wednesday night regarding LIV Golf’s inability to agree on the deposition terms of London-based PGA Tour executive Thierry Pascal detailed LIV’s struggles.

“Based on [PGA] Tour documents and other sources, LIV believes Mr. Pascal used illegal means to dissuade numerous broadcasters in international markets from signing broadcast contracts with LIV and even from reporting about LIV events in their news content,” LIV lawyers wrote in the filing.

“Time and again, after the live meeting or phone call, the broadcaster did an about-face and informed LIV the negotiations (in one case, a signed contract) could not proceed. Because of his conduct and his efforts to conceal it, Mr. Pascal is a foundational witness whose testimony will inform later discovery in important ways.”

That signed contract with a would-be international broadcast partner occurred last year, a source with knowledge of the deal told Front Office Sports.

Pascal, the managing director of PGA Tour International UK and senior VP of international media, was scheduled to be deposed on Monday in London, although the PGA Tour has sought a remote deposition.

A streaming-only proposition in the U.S. in its inaugural season last year, LIV Golf announced a multiyear broadcast deal with The CW in January.

On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman ordered that Pascal’s deposition must be conducted “no later than April 14.”