Elite sport: Where is the contentment?

Sport has been plagued by conversations about money in recent years, exacerbated by golf’s high-profile breakaway LIV tour [a professional men's golf tour] and recent demands from elite tennis players for their prize money to be increased.

Golf

The formation of the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf circuit in 2022 sparked furious debate in the golfing world, as some of the sport’s top stars departed from the PGA Tour [PGA is an organiser of professional golf tours] for the far greater sums on offer at LIV. This was seen by many as a betrayal of the established structures which had given the players their living, and paid them fairly handsomely already.

Two-time major champion Bryson DeChambeau joined LIV for a contract reportedly worth $125 million in the summer of 2022, with many others following suit for their own eye-watering sums, including Jon Rahm, who joined for $300 million, claiming the sums on offer would allow the players to set their families up for the future.