Sports Illustrated Estimates $22 Million In Lost Endorsements For Tiger Woods

EA Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour '11 Video Game Sales Take Major Fall

In Sports Illustrated's most recent Fortunate 50 rankings, it was reported that Tiger Woods lost $22 million in endorsements since his well-documented fall from grace last November. It looks as if that number may continue to drop as one of Tiger's biggest backers, EA Sports, has seen sales of Tiger Woods PGA Tour '11 plummet.  

From Pastapadre:

Late last week NPD released the official sales numbers for June. Tiger Woods 11 saw a huge drop-off from what Tiger 10 sold in its first month. Given the numbers that were on hand I estimated that it had fallen in the 40-50% range. It turns out that the situation was even more dire than anticipated. Sales actually dropped 68% year-over-year for all formats combined while the Wii version specifically fell an almost unbelievable 86%. It went from 272K to 38K.

EA Sports, who have been tied to Woods for over a decade, has acted a bit differently since Tiger's scandal.  While companies like Accenture, TAG Heuer, and Gillette cut ties or reduced Tiger's role as a spokesman, EA Sports has always had an exclusively golf based relationship with Woods, making his personal life of less importance. Apparently that's not the case as Pastapadre points out:

Some are pointing to less in the way of marketing as another reason to consider, though that is a direct symptom of the issue EA faced by keeping Tiger on as the face of the game. They could no longer promote him, and in turn the game, in the same manner and to the same extent as they had in the past. Clearly EA Sports has little choice but to make drastic changes now. Whether that means a rebranding of the franchise remains to be seen.

The drop in sales can be attributed to little else besides the scandal because, as anyone who has ever played the game before knows, it's awesome. Should they choose to cut Tiger free, EA Sports may have already begun to cover their bases. On this year's Tiger Woods PGA Tour '11, Woods shares the cover with 21-year-old Brit, Rory McIlroy - a potential new face for EA's golf platform.

EA Sports has been known to have controversial figures on the covers of their games before, however. There was much ado last year when the company chose to put convicted rapist, Mike Tyson, on the cover of Fight Night 4 with Muhammad Ali. The video game company, in response to the Tyson dilemma, responded by saying that Tyson was one of the greatest fighters of all time and that was what influenced their decision. Woods has dominated golf more than Tyson ever did boxing but, if sales of Tiger Woods PGA Tour '11 continue to falter, EA may have no choice but to find a new face for the platform.

Sports Illustrated Estimates Tiger Woods Lost $22 Million In Endorsements

According to Sports Illustrated's annual Fortunate 50, Tiger Woods has lost roughly $22 million in endorsements since last year due to certain happenings last November. Woods, whose endorsements have dropped from $92 million to $70 million, still remains the highest paid athlete on the planet despite earning $9 million less than in 2009. The tens of millions of dollars Woods lost in endorsements can be attributed to AT&T, Gatorade and Accenture, among others. However, a $10 million bonus from last year's FedEx Cup certainly helped to keep Woods' bottom line relatively stable. 

Woods has been ranked in the top spot for all seven years the magazine has been doing its report. 

The $90,508,163 that Tiger was estimated to have earned is more than $28 million higher than the list's second ranked earner, Phil Mickelson.  

From Golf Week via the AP:

Woods is still No. 1 on the list, as he has been for the rankings' seven years. But his estimated total earnings of more than $90 million are down 30 percent from nearly $128 million two years ago.

Phil Mickelson is again No. 2 with total earnings of more than $61 million. His estimated endorsement income is $52 million, compared with $70 million for Woods.

The American athlete also continues to out-earn their international counterparts. Roger Federer took over the top spot from David Beckham in this year's international rankings but Federer's $61,768,110 in estimated earnings marks him as the only international athlete that would crack the American top four -- rounded out by Floyd Mayweather Jr. and LeBron James.