World Saudi League.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and its branching out into sports, is no secret. Earlier last year the oil rich state funded the billion dollar rebel golf tour LIV which, essentially, forced the longstanding PGA to sell itself to Riyadh and, just like that, the sheiks own golf. Adding to their collection, and hours ago, it was announced that the Public Investment Fund purchased a minority stake in PFL, more the Professional Fighters League to the tune of $100 million.
As part of the agreement, SRJ (the branch of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund that deals with sport) will also be an investor in a new regional league called PFL MENA, which will launch in 2024, and will support PFL’s expansion into Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. The upcoming PFL pay-per-view Super Fight events will be held in Saudi Arabia.
SRJ’s commitment to the PFL is worth more than $100 million, sources confirmed to ESPN after a report from Sportico. One source told ESPN that the deal “could be worth substantially more” than that number in the future.
Ooooooeee.
$100 million shekels.
I mean, not shekels, clams.
Imagine how much drool is flooding Dirk Ziff’s uncomfortably dry mouth at this moment.
Rumors have been boiling for months, now, that the reclusive billionaire and owner of the World Surf League has been shopping his failed asset. Even though former CEO Erik Logan promised growth and “momentum being real” he got fired after telling a boy to “take his shirt off” and those pronouncements were flat out lies.
It is neither growing nor having momentum, exciting ladder sponsorships being the best it can do, and you must imagine that Ziff is chartering the family jet and punching in coordinates as “middle” and “east.
Wave tanks in Jeddah.
Final’s Day in Haql.
Have you ever been?
I’ve only looked at Haql from a hospital in Aqaba when I was suffering from amoebic dysentery.
Unchill.
I’ll put all my agurot that Ziff will, anyhow, sell to, if not Saudi then Bahrain sometime next year, using the Olympics as leverage.
I mean, not agurot, simolians.
But if a minority stake in an off-brand fight league costs $100 mil what will all of professional surfing cost?
I’m going… covering debt plus free. Just like when Ziff bought it the first time!
Watch.
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This is already in the works. Kelly’s wave pool company, partially owned by the WSL, sold their tech to a Saudi national fund that is setting up shop in Dubai.
At least with Dirk we can penetrate and pierce the WSL’s Wall of Positive Noise with satire and sarcasm. Chas’ sentence for doing so is being blocked on social
media. The Saudis take over the WSL, the sentence for negative noise – AKA, “culturally important criticism” – would be death. #DeathTweets
https://www.npr.org/2023/08…
El Segundo Little League Baseball beat Caracao and the star player, when asked: “Where do you want to spend the rest of your summer?”
DUBAI
inshallah
If anyone is interested in living and working in The Kingdom so that they can be WSL-adjacent, I’m looking to hire a contractor in AlUla.
Is Surf Ranch Dubai open yet?
Soon!
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I pray to Allah that the Saudis make Tyler surf in a Burka. Can’t stand that guy
I pray to Allah that the Saudis make Tyler surf in a Burka. Can’t stand that guy.
Wax heads v towel heads
Lots of pros and bros already sporting towel heads on hot days…
GOD is Great!
Ladies(haha), come get your Scorn wetsuit, and beach attire. My friend the mouse is modeling what we call “The Upper”. Get your orders in now, or gtfo of the Prince’s league…..bwahhahahaha
Much as I love to shit on the WSL, I still occasionally enjoy the spectacle of the odd heat.
If it gets sold to the Saudis then it really and truly is game over for me. Not a single eyeball shall they have from me.
Currently they are about to execute a guy for a couple of tweets being vaguely critical of the government.
Fuck them with a flaming drilling rig.
With ya CB. Fuck the Suadi’s and the camel they rode in on! Nothing is too much for when money is on the menu, all morals, ethics and dignity fly out the window. Just image the corppo greenwash, talk of inclusivity etc, all potentially to be owned by OIL MONEY & the most horrid of religious zealots that want women in bags and be free to hire 3rd world slaves to build their stupid buildings and sand land inlands. As if the wozz aren’t hypocritical enough, they need to add another layer to the heinous onion.
https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx….
When Saudi Arabia and Syria agreed to reopen their respective embassies earlier this year, the WSL deal was pretty much done too. Join the dots people. Join the DOTS! Now, where did my tinfoil hat go!?
Dirka, Dirka, Jihad
Haka sherpa sherpa bak Allah!
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I dunno, isn’t Dirk of the jewish persuasion? Are the saudis really gonna buy shit off a jewish businessman? Maybe Derek can confirm.
Also re: Bahrain, dont you mean the UAE?
Ive worked in the middle east. Its shit and crass and full of obnoxious hypocrites and assholes. Gulf arabs are the worst (incidentally, the iranians are usually way nicer). Up close all those fancy buildings look like a movie set.
Never seen so many shit drivers in Phantoms, 7-Series BMW’s, Lambos and such. 40 mph collisions at the gas pump. At the fucking gas pump! Felt like it was a movie set.
When money talks, religious disagreements walk.
Oh House of Saud and Israel bro’d up a few years ago. They cool.
will they do the wave? I mean the crowd standing and hailing and sitting and standing at arena events and yelling UAE, UAE?
Allah akbar?
Man. fuck this. If the Saudi’s buy surfing, I will not follow. They bombed the shit outta Yemen for no reason, and well.. 9/11.. How quickly we forget.
Wow. I’m mostly impressed with how strong their passports are…. I mean, fire hot enough to melt mf steel, but homey’s passport fell down onto the skreet, where the fib found it. Cool, gotta love’s the cancellation of physics, and logic.
A brave passenger broke a window and flicked it out.
Heroes!!
Would not bode well for the womens tour, unless a hooded 4/3 is considered a burkini.
I read, from a fairly reliable source on a fairly reliable website, last month, that ELo is still involved in the Saudi deal after getting his own name added to some vital contracts in the months leading up to his sudden departure from the wOOsl.
Even if Dirk has to give it away, ELo stands to walk away with a tidy sum and management contract from the new owners.
Apparently…
Inertia’s future: top 10 hijabs for a day on the shore
*handjobs
there’s only 1 in that dept., DR’s hand-fed eclair experience
how the fuck could we forget? maybe it was on 4-12…is that not marijuana day and with munchies at a max!?