Why Louisiana is paying LIV Golf $5 million next year

It’s officially Lookahead Season for LIV Golf, which just saw its 2025 calendar come to a close but has already started to promote its events for next year. Among their stops: New Orleans, a long-time PGA Tour host that has never hosted the rival league. 

One major reason why LIV has found a new home in NOLA is … money. At least $5 million, courtesy of the state of Louisiana, forked over as a “hosting fee” for bringing some of the best golfers in the world to the bayou. 

It costs a lot of money to produce LIV events — in the range of $50-60 million — and unlike the PGA Tour, LIV owns and operates all of them. And lately, in order to guarantee a LIV visit to your area, it requires some up-front funding. In June, Louisiana state senators earmarked more than $7 million tax-payer dollars in a 2026 budget proposal for a LIV event, which came to fruition with the tournament announcement this week. $5 million simply to host, and then $2 million to get the host course — Bayou Oaks, a muni — in shape ahead of the tournament. 

LIV tournament locations have frequently come down to deals like this one, both domestically and abroad. Hosting a LIV event in Australia, for example, has required plenty of negotiations with local officials and state leaders. In that case, it has led to a deal through 2031, the longest of LIV’s annual events. In the case of domestic hosts like New Orleans, the deals are not nearly as long. LIV Golf visited Chicago each of its first four seasons, the last two being held at Bolingbrook Golf Club on the city’s south side. But lacking financial commitment from the state of Illinois, LIV is unlikely to return to Chicago in 2026. 

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“We only go where we’re welcome with open arms,” LIV CEO Scott O’Neil said during the NOLA announcement press conference. It’s not the first time he’s said so. The payoff of such a deal, he argues, is simply an investment in the local economy. “We fill seats on planes, we fill hotel rooms, we fill restaurants, and we put on some world-class golf,” O’Neil said during the LIV event in Hong Kong earlier this year. 

Of course, anytime taxpayer funds are earmarked for a specific event, tax-paying citizens have the right to an explanation. The LIV funding is similar, though much greater in total, to money payed to lure other sporting events — like a UFC fight — to Louisiana. But navigating LIV’s orbit has always been trickier given the controversy surrounding its financial backer, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, and its human rights record.

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry was quick to respond to questions about state funding landing a rival golf tour — particularly when the PGA Tour visits New Orleans every April. 

“We wanted to try to get something in the city during the summertime,” Landry told reporters this week. “We want New Orleans to be a city where people come January to December.”

Landry called Bayou Oaks “one of the roughest diamonds that just needs to be polished off,” and dispelled concerns about LIV’s financial backer before complimenting the LIV format for striking a distinct feeling from the PGA Tour’s more traditional Zurich Classic.

“I’ve been to one golf tournament and I can’t go because they hold up those Quiet signs,” Landry said after entering the announcement stage amid a flurry of sparklers. “It’s just not me. That’s why I love LIV Golf. There are no Quiet signs. It’s a party.”

New Orleans is the 13th site to be announced, leaving one more stop on the 2026 LIV calendar yet to be announced.