Other website sections

»Sports Market Reports

»Sports Jobs

»Tenders

»Directory

»Conferences

Leading brands such as Nike and Adidas will dramatically cut their spending on sports sponsorship as a result of the Tiger Woods scandal, experts have predicted.

In a research note entitled ‘Tiger Woods Fallout: Another Nail in the Coffin of the Expensive Endorsement Era’, Credit Suisse analyst Omar Saad believes companies will have to rethink their entire sponsorship strategies after Woods’ fall from grace amid claims of a string of extra-marital affairs.

Nike and Adidas are seen as the brands that determine market prices for sports sponsorship and Saad said: “We expect the Tiger media fallout to serve as a catalyst for them both to realise that they are systematically overpaying for athlete and team sponsorships, especially given the growing risks involved.

“We believe the trend away from high-profile, multimillion-dollar celebrity and athlete endorsements has been growing for some time, and ‘Tiger-gate’ could be an inflection point. Athlete sponsorships can be fraught with risk and simply aren’t as valuable as they once were.”

Nike and several other brads have vowed to stand by Woods, who is taking an indefinite break from professional golf to address his problems, but Accenture has announced that it is ending its six-year relationship with the world No1 and Gillette has said it will “limit” his role in its marketing.

Meanwhile, Woods’ indiscretions could cost the golf world at least $200m in lost revenue, it has been claimed.

Without the sport’s biggest draw, tournament crowds may be 20 per cent smaller, according to organisers.

Bloomberg reports that television audiences may shrink by half, based on Nielsen data from past events, and TV advertising could drop by as much as 40 per cent, said Aaron Cohen, chief media negotiating officer at advertising agency Horizon Media.

Nike stands to lose more than $30m in sales, according to Claire Gallacher, an analyst at Capstone Investments.

Rick Gentile, a former CBS Sports executive producer who teaches at Seton Hall University, added: “It’s not so much a ripple effect as it is a tsunami. The aura is gone.”