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No doubt by now you’ve heard something about Tiger Woods in the news. His wife beat him up because he was cheating on her and he ran his car into a tree or something like that. It doesn’t really matter what happened to Tiger. All that matters is that anything that is bad for Tiger, is bad for business.
Think for a second, who is a famous golfer other than Tiger Woods? If you’re like my mom, The Sheconomist, my dad, or millions of other people, nothing is going to come to you quickly. I’m not a big golfer, but I know enough about the sport to know some of the top players. But none of them compare to Tiger. He transcends golf the way Lance Armstrong transcended cycling. They took their sports mainstream, and while most still don’t care about the sports, they care about these people, which is good for the sport.
Back in 2008, Woods backed out of the AT&T National, an event he usually hosts and plays in. Ratings were down 48%. During the British Open last year, ratings were down 14.6%, Tiger was out due to knee surgery. Whether you love his play or hate it, people watch to see Tiger. The more people that watch, the more the networks can charge advertisers. The more they charge, the more the PGA can charge the network for television rights. The more they charge, the greater the purse money for winning. Missing Tiger = lost revenues.
Tiger has made something like $100 million from his winnings over the years. But this doesn’t compare to the money he’s made from endorsements from companies such as: AT&T, EA Sports, Gatorade, Gillette, Nike, Tag Hauer, and others. He’s basically responsible for the entire Nike Golf brand, which was just a small boutique division of Nike when Tiger was brought on board.
Collectively, Tiger Woods is a billion dollar brand, which puts him ahead of even Michael Jordan. This doesn’t make him a billionaire mind you. However the man is only 33, and could go another 20 years in this business easily. He will break $1 billion in net worth without any issue, and probably go higher.
The old idea that all press is good press isn’t true. These days, your sponsorship deals can get dropped quickly if the public gets a bad image of you. Tiger shouldn’t have much to worry about, because whatever has gotten him in the news lately is a personal matter. Tiger Woods is more than just a man, it’s a brand and a business.
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December 2, 2009 11:45 am
On 8/3/09, Dan Healy posted a comment in the golf group (2nd page) that went like this - "What do you think of tigers bad attitude on the course? Good article about it here http://tr.im/vl0f"
The short URL points to an article on ESPN commentary ( http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=43... ) where the author of the article goes into depth about Tiger Wood's temper and how it's disrespectful to the game of golf.
I read the article and commented - "Thanks for the article Dan. Golf is a gentleman's game and he is a role model to the kids so he should learn to control his temper."
Dan responded with - "I agree, and his attitude does bother me. At the same time he is a competitor, he is there to win, and he does what (he feels) is necessary."
Josh Thomas responded - "The reason he's a role model is because he wins. If tempering his competitive spirit hurts his game, I think I'd be mad we changed it."
So here we are - 12/2/09 - and this is what I think. Tiger Woods should have gone to anger management classes because he (and maybe the golf business) has an image problem. We can all try to connect the dots about his wife, the other woman, or whatever because that's what makes for a juicy story.
I think he should start with working on his temper.
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Grad School Zone
UVA (Darden) MBA Admissions Deadlines for 2010-2011
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The University of Virginia's Darden School of Business recently published its application deadlines for the coming admissions season. Here they are, followed by our comments in italics:
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