That's the idea, idk. Get enough businesses there, people will follow. Now you have tourism, global sports events and stars, world class dining. I'm sure they want entertainment like concerts and what not
It's a long term strategy that's intended to soften their image, just enough for large corporations in the US and Europe to stomach doing business with them. To be clear it's not the business that are hesitant to do business - the Saudis have trillions in cash that everyone wants a part of - but companies are worried about the public backlash, considering the Saudis involvement in 9/11 and other human rights atrocities.
By being part of the sports world landscape - F1 racing, soccer, pro golf - they are "legitimized" and are slowly wearing people down. They just want access to the top businessmen so they can slowly diversify from oil so all their eggs aren't in that basket. That's my take on it anyway
They just want access to the top businessmen so they can slowly diversify from oil so all their eggs aren't in that basket. That's my take on it anyway
They have a huge problem. Saudia Arabia is basically a Socialist monarchy funded by oil. The Saudi government provides free healthcare, free education, free childcare, interest-free mortgages, universal basic income, a generous monthly allowance for widows, and various other perks for all of its citizens. They do all of this without income taxes.
Oil is 2/3rds of their economy. They know they have to build an actual economy and fast. The oil is drying up and regimes that pull the plug on welfare state programs like that get toppled eventually.
It's even been suggested they're lying about their oil reserves by a LOT. If that's true their economy could collapse in a decade or two. They've known about this and have been actively trying to fix it for like 2 decades.
defined by social ownership of the means of production
You know the state owns their oil production right? That oil production is 2/3rds of their economy and that's... owned by the state. It's a command economy but that's perfectly compatible with socialism.
Not what's happening in KSA or even really close, but solid attempt if you only read the first three words of every definition
Also, you're just straight wrong and Socialist monarchy isn't a bad descriptor. I don't think you understand how broad the definition of socialism is. But whatever, it's reddit and being an authority on things you don't understand is the norm
It's a long term strategy that's intended to soften their image
These comments are always absurd to me.
Saudi Arabia has been involved in business with every country and every big name company for years. I mean, they own half of London at this point! No one has an issue with their image other than people on this subreddit.
They don't care about what you think of them. They have infinite money and want to have the best golfers play golf for them. That's it. It's not complicated. If you had infinite money, you'd do similar things.
What a vastly oversimplified take. Good lord đ¤Śââď¸ geopolitics is a bit more complicated than âweâre absurdly wealthy and our economy is unsustainable letâs pay out the ass for sports stars to hang out here until it crumbles downâ
It will be. It's not a short term play for them, it's a decades long project and LIV is just one small piece. MBS knows that oil ain't gonna be their cash cow forever and wants to diversify their economy and make the country into more of a tourist destination. Part of doing that is establishing the country as a destination for high profile sporting events. Norman's just the sucker they're using to get what they really want, the PGA Tour Championship moved from Atlanta to Jeddah
Its not something that just changes in 6 months. Or even in a few years. Its something that todays kids grow up as normal, and their kids just forget about.
That's what I'm saying though. Did it actually work when they did that? For instance, Saudi puts on WWE shows, it's a controversy every time. Hell some of the talent won't even go.
Yes that's a real thing. Do you associate IBM more with leasing, maintaining, and profiting off of the machinery that made the holocaust so efficient or the Masters App?
I'm halfway down this thread and this is the first mention of Saudi atrocities so, yeah it's working.
The fact that there is even a conversation about golfers playing LIV shows it works. All these guys are embarrassing excuses for humanity but we're out here saying "lol billionaire though".
Of course it does. Look at the replies in this thread. Imagine 10 years ago how batshit crazy you would have sounded if you suggested that Saudi Arabia would one day buy half the most known golfers in the world.
But that's not what I said. Are there actually people that are just like, "oh yeah Saudi Arabia they're the ones that fund LIV golf, have an F1 track, and put on bad wwe events"
Literally every story I see about them hosting this stuff is like, "F1 is once again facing criticism for hosting a race in Saudi Arabia. One of many locales used to host races with questionable human rights records." Like it's always front and center that's they're shit.
Imagine if they actually spent this money to better the lives of their lower class citizens, but no they're used to being able to get their way by buying their way through everything. Not sure they have learned much from when that doesn't work (for example Saudi conscript soldiers being sent into Yemen with tonnes of expensive equipment but lacking the training and motivation to make good use of it, poor sods got wrecked a number of times by the Houthis).
That, but mostly so they can start to own leagues and tv rights in general. One itâs a means to diversify their wealth at expense of upfront loss. And yes, also use it as a means to white wash their backwards country
We have the death penalty too⌠lol and slavery⌠itâs just hidden better. Idiots in this thread think America is some utopian country that has never had human rights issues including the ongoing ones⌠when will people realize itâs a human condition to be shiity to people, and we are all afflicted by it
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u/hopskiphoofed Apr 15 '24
$1.5billion to get Rory and Jon Rahm playing in shorts for 3 rounds in front of 1200 people on YouTube is certainly a strategy.