We’ve been down this road before, a lot. What LIV Golf does has its roots at the turn of the last century, when first the American League and then the Federal League decided to try and challenge the National League’s baseball superiority. Funny thing: the weapon of choice for declaring war hasn’t changed at all.

“Money is the root of it all,” said NL president Nicholas Young as he watched a wave of his players and umpires jump to the AL in 1901. The AL survived. The Federal League did not. Sport still has a Darwinian addiction.

It was the 1960s and 1970s that saw rival leagues make serious runs at the facility. The ABA and its red, white and blue ball and wide-open style targeted the NBA from 1967. The WHA faced the NHL from 1972. The NFL was targeted by three separate rivals between 1960 and 1986 , the AFL, WFL and USFL.

“Every time a new league formed, the first reaction was, ‘This is terrible, this is the end of the world as we know it,'” Lamar Hunt told me in 1998. “And then the people saw our games, saw our teams, and realized: it was just more of a good thing. It wasn’t the devil.

Hunt was the founder of the AFL, and he and the other founding members of that league were quickly dubbed “The Foolish Club” for even thinking about facing the NFL. But 62 years later, 10 of the NFL’s 32 teams have their roots in the AFL. That includes perhaps the league’s flagship team right now, the Kansas City Chiefs, which Hunt owned until his death in 2006.

“I’ve always said all you need to survive as a competitive league is three things,” Hunt said. “First of all, you need a group of smart people to make it work. Second, you need a bit of luck; a good bounce here and there never hurt anyone.

He smiled.

“And have plenty of cash,” he said. “That helps a lot.”

The AFL had that on their side. After Hunt lost $1 million in the league’s first year (playing in Dallas, as the Texans, in direct competition with the NFL Cowboys), someone questioned his dad, HL, mogul oil, about it. “At this rate,” said the old man, “he will be in trouble in 142 years.”

The LIV has cash. The guaranteed money thrown around this week ahead of its first event in London made MLB’s free agent hot pan period look like a garage sale. There are strong words and grudges on both sides – venom that goes well beyond the basic human rights issue of being in bed with the Saudis.

“When we came in,” Hunt said, “we recalibrated a lot of things. Not just the salary either. But opportunity.

Hunt’s favorite example was his own quarterback, Len Dawson, who moved from the taxi team to Canton thanks to the AFL. Don Maynard too. The ABA allowed Connie Hawkins to play while he was banned everywhere else (wrongfully, after being charged with point shaving). The WHA offered 45-year-old Gordie Howe the chance to play alongside his sons, Mark and Marty.

It might not be so poetic, the idea that Phil Mickelson can now command nine figures of guaranteed money. But LIV follows the plan closely. It always starts with money. After that, it’s up to the product to deliver.

Twenty-four years ago, Lamar Hunt said: “Let me ask you a question: do you think the AFL has destroyed professional football?”

In twenty-four years, we will surely be asking the same thing of LIV. And chances are the answer is much the same.