Gods of victory: this bromance could be worth millions.
In China for this week’s BMW Masters, Rory McIlroy has responded to mounting speculation he is on the verge of confirming an enormous sponsorship contract with sportswear manufacturer Nike.
According to the Guardian’s Ewan Murray, the proposed endorsement will likely see the 23-year-old exchange his current deals with Titleist, Oakley, Santander and Audemars Piguet for an exclusive 10-year contract valued at somewhere in the region of $250 million.
A cloud in the corporate stratosphere beckons, it seems, but the Northerner is at least making a good fist of feigning indifference:
“I leave it up to Conor (Ridge, McIlroy’s manager) to sort out as it leaves me to concentrate on my golf. That’s all I can do and besides I have enough to think about trying to get the ball in the hole. Also I’ve got a very important end to my season coming up and I need to concentrate myself fully on that goal.” (AFP)
It’d be nice to see a major athlete moot Nike’s alleged exploitation and harassment of workforces in the developing world, or denounce the rank cynicism and hypocrisy with which the company jettisoned Lance Armstrong only last week*, but…
Gotta get paid, I guess.
Conor Nagle
*I’m not implying Lance was somehow mistreated, by the way; quite the opposite. He was so obviously guilty for so long that Nike’s ethical judgement deserves to be called into question. Anyway, I digress.
Sponsorship amounts are obscene! And it’s mugs like us who pay McIlroy and others by buying Nike’s overpriced products.
If the numbers are accurate, and I have a hard time believing they are, then I wonder how Tiger will handle playing second fiddle?
Tiger makes 30 mil per year from Nike, so that’s a non issue.
I am unable to find any information with an actual numerical value of Tiger’s current deal, but assuming you are right, there is no way that Nike will keep two people on staff making 25-30 million a year. It’s not financially responsible. That’s not how endorsement deals work. You bring in the new hot hand and pay them big bucks, and put the aging star out to pasture. It happens time and time again. It seems clear that Nike wants Rory to be the new face of the brand, regardless of whom is making slightly more money. That puts Tiger second fiddle. So my question still stands, how will Tiger handle his new role?
Tiger signed a 5 year deal in 2001 worth roughly 100mil, the new deal he signed in 2006 was said to be substantially more, interpret how you wish.
Nike will absolutely pay two people massive sponsorship money, in fact they already pay several. That being said I am skeptical about the numbers in the Rory deal.
They may pay two people that much in other sports, but not golf. Even in Duval’s heyday, he wasn’t remotely close to Tiger in endorsement earnings.
they do it in nearly every sport, just how nike operates, guarantee you tiger stays with nike (and is highly compensated)
Also Conor while I also think nike exploits its workers, so does everyone else – so unless they were willing to renounce sponsorship etc, not sure it matters which company it is
Nike will keep Tiger and Rory. $25 million Rory, and Tiger+- $30 million. Tiger has about 3 years left on his current deal. With these players, Nike can scale back the rest of their golf money, (i.e. Paul Casey, Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink, etc.). Not that they need to, but a scale back is possible, and it’d still be a major step forward for Nike Golf.
Nike golf revenues for 2011 were $623 Million. Nike would probably be projecting the addition of Rory will push that number up to a billion. They can afford to pay Rory and Tiger without blinking. To say otherwise is ridiculous.
Hey Steph, been a longtime reader of the blog, and Tiger and Rory are coming to Zhengzhou 8/29 and I will attend their match. I’ll try to get pictures and send them to you for the blog! I’m a Chinese-American expat here in zhengzhou and I can’t believe they are coming!!!
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