沙特斥巨资完成美巡赛与LIV高尔夫合并

Wow, the two biggest organizations in pro golf are merging.

现在，两个最大的职业高尔夫组织要合并了。

The PGA Tour has run big tournaments for generations, but it faced a challenge from an upstart with a lot of money.

美巡赛世世代代都在举办大型赛事，但它面临着一个有钱的暴发户的挑战。

That would be the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Tour.

这个暴发户就是沙特阿拉伯支持的LIV巡回赛。

That's L-I-V pronounced, as we said, LIV, like live large, which the tour did, offering eye-popping paychecks to attract players from the PGA.

这个组织的发音为L-I-V，如我们所言，LIV就是生活挥霍(live large)的意思，LIV巡回赛也确实如此，该组织提供令人瞠目的薪水来吸引美巡赛的球员。

Zach Helfand of The New Yorker joins us now with the latest. Good morning.

《纽约客》的扎克·赫尔芬德现在为我们报道最新情况。早上好。

Good morning.

早上好。

These two tours were fighting. Why did they merge?

这两个巡赛组织在斗争。它们为什么合并?

So this was something that came as a big surprise to almost everyone involved. Even some of the star players didn't know that this was coming.

这对几乎所有相关人员来说都是一个巨大的惊喜。甚至一些明星球员也不知道这一切的到来。

But it's also one of those things that, from a business standpoint, a lot of people, with the benefit of hindsight, could say, oh, yeah, we could see why this happened.

但这也是其中一件事，从商业的角度来看，很多人事后明白了会说，哦，是的，我们可以看看为什么会这样。

The Saudis wanted a golf tour. They wanted power and prestige, and they had a lot of money.

沙特人想要一个高尔夫巡赛。他们想要权力和声望，而且他们很有钱。

And the PGA Tour was always happy to take a lot of money, and they had a golf tour to offer and they had power and prestige to offer. So each side really had what the other wanted.

而美巡赛总是很乐意拿到很多钱，他们可以提供高尔夫巡赛，他们也可以提供权力和声望。所以，双方都有对方想要的东西。

I want to understand. Is this a merger of equals or is it a takeover?

我想要知道。这是平等合并还是收购?

That's a good question. It depends how you view it.

这是个好问题。这取决于你怎么看。

They're establishing a new entity, which will oversee LIV. There's a question of whether LIV will live on. And it will also oversee the PGA Tour.

他们要成立一个新实体，来监管LIV。现在的问题是LIV能不能活下去。这个新实体还将监管美巡赛。

The PGA Tour gets - it's probably going to be about $3 billion from the Saudis, and they get to retain voting rights control over the board of directors.

美巡赛可能会从沙特获得30亿美元，他们将保留控制董事会的投票权。

But the head of the Saudi Public Investment Fund gets to be the chairman of the board.

但沙特公共投资基金的负责人将成为董事会主席。

Ah, OK. So a Saudi choice to be chairman, but the PGA Tour forces have the majority of the board seats. That's what you're saying?

好。将会选沙特人为主席，但美巡赛的势力占据了董事会的多数席位。你是这个意思吗?

Yeah. It's kind of a power-sharing agreement. The PGA Tour retains more control, though, with the voting rights.

是的。这是一个分权协议。不过，美巡赛在投票权方面拥有更多控制权。

So I have to ask about the reputation of Saudi Arabia and human rights abuses there, which golfers have noted.

我不得不问一下沙特阿拉伯的声誉和那里侵犯人权的行为，高尔夫球员们曾注意到这一点。

Phil Mickelson, one of the biggest stars, said last year that he viewed LIV as a Saudi vehicle to improve the reputation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, conceal his poor record on human rights.

最大牌球星之一菲尔·米克尔森去年表示，他认为LIV是沙特的一个工具，目的是提高王储穆罕默德·本·萨勒曼的声誉，掩盖他在人权方面的不良记录。

How are pro golfers answering those kinds of accusations now that they've joined forces with the Saudis?

既然职业高尔夫球手已经与沙特联手，他们将如何回应这些指控？

They're happy to gloss over it once they are part of the Saudi outfit.

一旦成为沙特组织的一员，他们就乐于掩盖这一点。

So it's one of those things that I don't know that most golfers really care that much about. Some of them do. A lot of them use it, if it's convenient.

一件事是，我不知道大多数高尔夫球手是否真的那么关心这件事。但有些人确实关心。如果方便的话，很多人会利用这件事。

I think the reputation-laundering aspect of this has been a little bit overblown.

我觉得说洗白名声有点夸张了。