Mar 4, 2024
Extra: What Is Sportswashing — and Does It Work? (Update)
In ancient Rome, it was bread and circuses. Today, it’s a World Cup, an Olympics, and a new Saudi-backed golf league that’s challenging the PGA Tour. Can a sporting event really repair a country’s reputation — or will it trigger the dreaded Streisand Effect? Also: why the major U.S. sports leagues are warming up to the idea of foreign investment.
* SOURCES:
* Jodi Balsam, professor of clinical law at Brooklyn Law School.
* Brandel Chamblee, Golf Channel analyst.
* Karen Crouse, sports journalist.
* Bomani Jones, sports journalist.
* Victor Matheson, professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross.
* Alan Shipnuck, sports journalist.
* RESOURCES:
* "The New N.F.L. Owners?" by Lauren Hirsch, Kevin Draper, Michael J. de la Merced and Sarah Kessler (_The New York Times, _2024).
* "PGA Tour Raises $1.5 Billion From Group of U.S. Investors," by Lauren Hirsch (_The New York Times, _2024).
* "PGA Tour, LIV Golf Agree to Merge," by Andrew Beaton and Louise Radnofsky (_The Wall Street Journal, _2023).
* _Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar_, by Alan Shipnuck (2022).
* "Dustin Johnson Paid £100m to Perform Late U-Turn and Join Saudi-Backed Rebel Series," by By James Corrigan and Tom Morgan (_The Telegraph_, 2022).
* "Russia Was the Hottest Place in Sports. Now It’s Frozen Out," by Joshua Robinson, Ben Cohen, and Louise Radnofsky (_The Wall Street Journal_, 2022).
* "Could This Be the Year ‘Sportwashing’ Backfires?" by Andrés Martinez (_The Los Angeles Times_, 2022).
* "The Truth About Phil and Saudi Arabia," by Alan Shipnuck (The Fire Pit Collective, 2022).
* _The New Yale Book of Quotations_, by Fred Shapiro (2021).
* "The Surprising Reason That There Are So Many Thai Restaurants in America," by Myles Karp (_Vice_, 2018).
* EXTRAS:
* "Greg Norman Takes On the P.G.A. Tour," by _People I (Mostly) Admire _(2023).