What comes to one’s mind when asked to think of Tiger Woods? I asked a few friends and got a range of answers stretching to his wife chasing him with a golf club to going down in history as one of the greatest golf players until his spectacular flameout. What I didn’t get, and which came as a surprise to me when I read about it, was an answer pointing to Tiger Woods being the most valuable brand in sports. That’s right. To this day, the former number 1 and currently ranked number 334th golfer in the world is still the most valuable brand in the all sports. With a brand value of $30 million, Woods is still doing fine.
While this may have made sense when he was at the top of his game, Tiger Woods is currently nowhere near where he once was and the number is still staggering. It points to just how untarnished his image and brand were by both his multiple sex scandals as well as his fall from the upper echelon of the golf world. Another thing to realize is that this number of $30 million is the total that he made in 2015, it’s how much more he made than the average of the top 10 golfers. The number is looked at through these lenses so that it’s easier to find out the actual worth of a player’s brand.
While Tiger Woods may currently be number one in terms of brand value, he has been losing ground every year since his scandal broke. Coming up close in second place is Phil Mickelson with $28 million and both Roger Federer and Lebron James are tied for 3rd with a brand value of $27 million. It seems as though even Tiger continues to lose rank and brand value over the course of the next few years (unless he can turn his game around in a massive way, this seems likely), he will be very comfortable with the amount of money being made. Remember that the $30 million is just how much more he makes, he’s making far far more money than that in total.
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