Holywood star’s box-office potential can reap ‘half a billion’

RORY McILROY is set tobecome one of the highest paidsportsmen on the planet after his US Open victory.

The combination of the 22-year-old’s talent, youthfulness and personality gives him the earning power to become one of golf’s biggest superstars.

John Trainor, managing director of Irish marketing experts, Onside Sponsorship, believes the Holywood superstar has the potential to earn half a billion dollars in the next decade.

Trainor explained: “The fact that he is so young, spells the opportunity to achieve unparalleled success in the world of sport. With the chance to play in maybe another 100 majors in his career, the chances of him surpassing Jack Nicklaus’s record 18 majors looks real. With this comes his potential for commercial success.

And how much would such success equate to?

“If Rory continues a run of major wins for the next five years, he may well be able to unlock a whole new level of potential for commercial opportunity that could see earnings of up to half a billion dollars while still in his 20s.”

In his prime Tiger Woods earned $100m (€70m) plus per year in endorsements, with Nike alone paying him $30m (€20m) per year. Last year according to Sports Illustrated, Woods still earned $60m (€42m) in endorsements, despite his very public fall from grace.

Trainor noted a major difference between Woods and McIlroy’s endorsement strategy is that Tiger’s shirt and hat are almost completely clean apart from Nike and one or two other brands — while Rory has six brands (Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts, Titleist, Audemars Piguet, Footjoy, Oakley, Lough Erne) in play.

Trainor notes that it will be a consideration for his management team following the next round of renewals as to whether he goes for a “doing more with less sponsors strategy”.

His agent Chubby Chandler was remaining tightlipped yesterday regarding the future earnings for his star.

“I’ll tell you in a year. It will make a big difference but there are a lot of sponsors who paid for the potential for what he had, they have not come cheap. Jumeirah Hotels were big and he has got bonuses written into four contracts. There is not an awful lot will happen straight away and we have actually batted back a few things just to take stock of where we are. There is two clothing companies that want to take off all the logos and pay more for it and they are not Nike so don’t go down that line. One of them is Oakley. And there’s another in contention also. That has to take place over a period of time because deals have time to run. So you can’t just go ‘we will go clean’ because it can’t happen.”

Nigel Currie, director of sports marketing agency Brand Rapport, heaped praise on McIlroy.

He said: “He has the potential to do what Roger Federer, Michael Schumacher and Tiger Woods have done. Golf, motor racing, boxing and tennis are the big-earning sports. If he was to dominate golf, like he could do, for a number of years, he could get up towards the one billion-dollar mark. He is so young and a precocious talent. The youthfulness gives him a unique factor and he comes across very well. He has put himself right in pole position and the next stepping stone is to establish himself as number one for a period of a few years.”

Steve Martin, M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment chief executive said: “Up until Sunday night Rory McIlroy was always an amazing young golfer. Now he is an amazing superstar sportsman and the potential to double his earnings is very, very realistic. His appeal is unusual because he is so young, he has broken all those records and Irishmen in America go down very well. He has an incredible mental strength and has shown he is not a quitter. He really has the full package. The US audience is incredibly hard to crack and they are almost treating him as their own.”