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Michael Phelps, golden boy in more ways than one:
The business decisions Phelps makes over the next two years — if not the next two weeks — will be critical. Appearances and endorsement possibilities will be flying from every direction, and he and his longtime agent, Peter Carlisle of Octagon, will have to be careful about their decisions.
Entering the Beijing Games, Phelps was reportedly earning an estimated $5 million annually from corporate endorsements, with deals from companies like AT&T, Visa, PowerBar, Omega and Speedo. Now that he’s won eight gold medals, breaking Mark Spitz’s 36-year-old record of seven in one Olympic Games, many in the sports marketing industry believe Phelps’ corporate income could set new records.
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Octagon’s Carlisle told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that he expects Phelps’ current annual earnings to at least double.
“What is the value of eight golds in Beijing before a prime-time audience in the U.S?” Carlisle told the newspaper. “I’d say $100 million over the course of his lifetime.”
Speedo has already paid him a $1 million bonus for breaking Spitz’s record. Just as records can be broken in the pool, so can contracts on land. According to The Wall Street Journal on Monday, Phelps’ worth to Nike could be $40 million.
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August 20th, 2008 at 10:50 am
[…] say that will translate to about $100M in lifetime sponsorship money. Not bad. Read more on our sports blog. It just goes to show how success and accomplishments are both absolute and relative… I am […]