Sponsors Would Have Dropped Andre Agassi
Andre Agassi would have been a pariah in his own sport if his drug-taking
exploits had been made public while he was playing, it was claimed last
night.
Leading sponsorship experts said that Agassi’s new status as a revered
philanthropist would protect him from rejection by the sponsors who now
support his charitable causes.
But they were shocked by the revelation that Agassi took crystal
methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug, and then lied to the tennis
authorities.
If that had become public knowledge at the time, they believe
he would have been thrown out of tennis so fast there would have been scorch
marks on the lawns of Wimbledon.
“There is no question he would have been banned and rejected by every sponsor
he had,” Dominic Curran, director at Synergy, the sport sponsorship
consultancy, said. “It was not just a question of taking
performance-enhancing drugs or a recreational drug but a substance that has
horrific consequences.
“Any sponsor would have dropped Agassi like a hot potato and could not
countenance being associated with an offense and a lie on that scale.”
Agassi became one of the most sought-after sportsmen in the world, racking up
more than $100 million in endorsements during his career — putting him in
the same league as figures such as Tiger Woods, Michael Schumacher and Roger
Federer.
Michael Phelps, the eight-times gold medal-winner at the Beijing Olympics last
year, discovered just how fast sponsors can react when Kellogg, the food
company, refused to renew its $1 million endorsement deal with him after he
was pictured appearing to smoke cannabis through a glass pipe, known as a
bong, in January.
But Agassi, with Steffi Graf, his wife and winner of 22 grand-slam singles
titles, have devoted themselves to their charitable foundation, which has
raised more than $40 million to educate underprivileged children. His deal
with Longines, the Swiss luxury watchmaker, has also been used to raise
money for charity.
Deals like that will go on if and when Agassi’s image is rehabilitated, in
spite of his drug-taking confessions from a difficult past.
Related posts: