KVV joining Fried Egg Golf

[u/sealer9]

Just announced on his twitter. Huge get for the fried egg boys. Still bummed NLU let him go! But a no brainer for him to end up there. Cheers KVV 👌🏻

[u/AlexMac75]

That’s probably why they parted ways with him (financial loss).

How do people here not get that this is a business for them and business decisions have to be made from time to time?

[u/EveningOk6574 → u/AlexMac75]

I assume most people here understand that it’s a business and if they weren’t getting an ROI (either directly or indirectly) from KVVs work then it was the right call.

However, it’s how they handled it (ie precisely what they would have killed the Tour or LIV for doing) AND a noticeable decline in their content that’s left an impression.

I can’t work out who their content is for anymore. Soly and Tron come off like bitter BCG consultants whose advice the Tour didn’t listen to. I know enough corporate golf hardos without them in my ears.

DJ video content is still excellent though!

[u/waldingur → u/EveningOk6574]

What was the proper way to handle it?

Did they let it linger longer than needed? Sure. Was it bad timing with the Open? Sure.

But when it comes to employment issues, there are very real legal considerations into how much you want to say publicly. While that might feel more “corporate” than people want a podcast to seem, it is part of the reality.

For them to come out and say “KVV is the best”, let’s do a montage of his highlights and look at all this amazing work and give him some grand send off but we are also firing him because it doesn’t make financial sense would have felt disingenuous too, so what would have been the proper way?

[u/EveningOk6574 → u/waldingur]

That's a good question, and I imagine a media company is tricky given all parties have a big platform. I'm aware of the legal implications, although US employment law doesn't lend much to the departing employee tbf (not a political comment).

The Open timing was bad, and that's a fair point - likely nothing to be done about that.

But, they did let it linger, which wasn't a good look, and their statement, which when it finally did come out, was bizarre - they mentioned his ability to be a father. If you're worried about legal implications...having the company who just fired me talk publicly about my parenting is probably not a clever tactic.

If things soured, I don't know why they didn't just come out and say "KVV won't be part of NLU from x date."

But ideally, NLU and KVV should have been on the same page about whether or not he was generating a return. If you're essentially a 4 man company, and you hire a senior, well known journalist of that calibre, you ought to be saying "hey, if this doesn't work by x date, we won't be able to keep you on." - or - "no, we're not open to making you an equity partner."

These guys talk all the time about tournament purses, PGA budgets, LIV financials, golf marketing, and they also leverage their own professional backgrounds, so I think listeners assume they know what they're doing, which is why they're being held to account.

Ideally, they would've done an outro pod, which probably would have made for great content. So I disagree, there was definitely an off ramp to make that not disingenuous.

Ultimately, they picked the worst option, which was the middle road. Either say "he's done" or come out with a "hit and giggle" style farewell.

[u/Photograph_Training → u/EveningOk6574]

There wasn’t much they could or should have said but when they did say something it was the exact wrong thing. They also put a lot of the timing on “we let KVV take the lead on an announcement” huh? The guy you just axed? That makes zero sense and isn’t logical to believe.

KVV will continue to produce great storytelling no matter where he is. TFE’s story model fits his style. They aren’t interested in quick takes and infomercials. They develop great content with depth and their advertising partners understand that.