The star power of Tiger Woods has a permanent home in the golf world and the sports universe. That status is being put to the test in his latest venture, an indoor golf league called TGL.
New and interesting sports leagues have been popping up all across North America recently with varying results. The most successful new league in 2024 had to be the Professional Women’s Hockey League which turned heads with soaring attendance across its six home cities in Canada and the United States.
TGL aims to be the new league of the year in ’25 but its fiscal approach will focus on television audiences and sponsorships far more than in-person attendance.
The SoFi Center is the host arena for all matches. Located on the campus of Palm Beach State College in Florida, its capacity is approximately 1,500. According to The Palm Beach Post, “with no tickets for the league’s inaugural season available on the secondary market, TGL has drawn an audience of politicians, athletes, influencers and celebrities.”
Ticketing isn’t to be a pillar of revenue for TGL. Reports have stated that matches have been attended by a bevy of potential investors ranging from Greg Johnson of Franklin Templeton Investments to the TV showrunner Shonda Rhimes and baseball owner and executive Theo Epstein. Even Larry Tanenbaum of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, and the owner of the WNBA’s Toronto Tempo has been spotted in attendance, according to the Palm Beach Post.
These potential investors could bring financing beyond the seed money that established the league in the name of more teams, and more host arenas outside Flordida. Sponsorship on apparel and throughout the building could increase as years go on.
No possible revenue stream will be left unconsidered with an emerging league backed by venture capital and private equity. Golfweek reported that “the list of investors in TGL is a veritable Burke’s Peerage of American oligarchy: John Henry’s Fenway Sports Group, Steve Cohen, Arthur Blank, Marc Lasry – all members of the Strategic Sports Group that dropped USD $1.5 billion into the PGA Tour a year ago.”
With this kind of backing there will be no dispute that cash is king when league decisions are made.
Front Office Sports reported that “TMRW Sports, the parent company of TGL, is valued at nearly USD $500 million in a Series A funding round.” Investment firms Dynasty Equity and Connect Ventures led the way. And this was before the competitions had even begun.
The first match in January garnered over 900,000 viewers on ESPN in the USA, according to The Huddle Up newsletter. That was a higher audience than the PGA’s first event of the year – The Sentry. In its first four weeks, according to Sports Business Journal, it has surpassed viewership of four college basketball games in the same TV window in 2024. It is crushing another new emerging league, Unrivaled, which features full court three vs three women’s basketball, airing in the USA on TNT/truTV. Early audiences for TGL are four times higher than Unrivaled.
When Tiger Woods made his league debut, TGL surpassed a million viewers and beat an NBA doubleheader on TNT that featured the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Denver Nuggets, according to Sports Business Journal.
This is where the TGL and all its powerful investors will lay their hat. Initial TV audiences suggest indoor, tech-guided golf in prime time is a draw. With Tiger Woods, and many other golf stars, but mostly Tiger Woods, playing a version of golf at night, and wearing a microphone at that, TGL has already established itself as a disruptive new league with a chance not only at survival, but to make major league money for years to come.
The worlds of sports and broadcasting are keeping a close eye on this emerging initiative for so many reasons. Can TGL keep viewers attached to cable TV? What can other upstart sports leagues learn from the reliance on technology in the actual play of game? Will traditional major league winter sports like basketball and hockey see their audiences impacted?
Many of America’s top venture capitalists are betting TGL will rise into the stratosphere inhabited by major league sports. A promising start and an icon of the game have the league under par in the early going.
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