Tiger Woods is not only the face of Nike’s golf business, but he has been synonymous with the brand through every major moment of his career, from his triumphs at Augusta to his unprecedented dominance at St. Andrews and beyond. 

That could all be changing soon.

While specific contract details have never been made public, Nike is believed to have paid Woods hundreds of millions of dollars since signing the superstar in 1996, when he was just 20 years old. But now, as the 47-year-old Woods approaches the twilight of his playing career, a surprising report is suggesting that he could split with Nike as early as this month.

On Monday, the “No Laying Up” golf podcast – which in the past has provided early insight into major shake-ups in pro golf, such as defections from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf – reported that next week’s PNC Championship could be Woods’s last tournament wearing the Swoosh. 

NLU also reported similar rumblings about other Nike golf athletes — a roster that includes Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, and Scottie Scheffler — based on the idea that an existing golf equipment manufacturer is potentially creating an apparel brand. Since Nike stopped manufacturing clubs in 2016, Wood has used clubs from TaylorMade, which sells some golf apparel but doesn’t have as vast a collection as Nike.

Since returning from ankle surgery in 2022, Woods has notably played golf tournaments wearing FootJoy shoes.

Rare Territory

Woods leaving Nike would be a major brand shift – but we’re not in uncharted territory. A few massive movements of the past:

• Messi leaving Nike for Adidas in 2005
• Kobe Bryant switching from Adidas to have his own like with Nike
• Simone Biles moving from Nike to new-age brand Athleta

Woods will likely be made available to the media during next week’s PNC Championship, a father/son event on the PGA Tour, where he is almost certain to be asked about his future with Nike, given the report.

Inter Miami won’t be competing for this weekend’s MLS Cup, but the team very well might end up the league’s top-earning club this season, despite not making the playoffs.

Thanks to the arrival of Lionel Messi in July, Miami’s 2023 total revenue will land upwards of $120 million, the club’s chief business officer, Xavier Asensi, told Sports Business Journal. In 2022, MLS champions LAFC — which faces the Columbus Crew in Saturday’s final — reportedly brought in a league-high $116 million.  

Inter Miami’s number falls in line with early projections this summer from club managing owner Jorge Mas, who expected revenue to double over the next year from last season’s $50 million. Asensi reiterated the club’s expectation to hit the $200 million revenue mark in 2024. Season tickets for next year have, unsurprisingly, already sold out.

The club’s financial success continues despite a failed attempt to travel to China for a two-game tour this fall during a portion of the MLS Cup playoffs. The tour could have brought in more than $20 million in ticket revenue alone.

Even with record goals for 2024, Inter Miami’s revenue could soar still higher in 2025, when a new $350 million soccer-specific stadium is scheduled to open. The club is racing to finish that venue, and the $1 billion development around it, in time for the 2025 season — the last under Messi’s current contract.

Two of the next three cities hosting the Summer Olympics are grappling with more and more issues, showing the strains the massive event can place on municipal resources. 

Already dealing with an extended series of organizational and local issues that have hampered Olympics preparations, the Paris 2024 organizing committee was rocked on Saturday by the stabbing death of a German-Filipino tourist near the Eiffel Tower, by an assailant French authorities described as an Islamist radical. 

The city’s opening ceremony next summer is built around a water parade along the River Seine involving several hundred thousand spectators, a plan unprecedented in scope in Olympics history – and one requiring an ambitious security protocol.

In the wake of the alleged terrorist attack, French authorities said there has been no thought of changing those festivities before next year’s Games.

“We have no Plan B. We have a plan in which there are several sub-plans with a certain number of adjustment variables,” said Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, French sports minister, on France Inter radio. 

Other concerns surrounding Paris 2024 have included local rioting, budget worries, bed-bug infestations, serious corruption allegations, and controversy over alcohol restrictions — plus issues surrounding high ticket prices, ambitious event logistics, and the city’s planned treatment of its homeless during the Games.

Australian Angst

Meanwhile, soaring facility costs are fueling rising dissension within the leadership of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

Days after a $1.8 billion plan emerged to replace the 128-year-old Brisbane Cricket Ground – at public expense — with one of the most expensive sports facility projects in the world, Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner resigned from an intergovernmental committee charged with organizing the Games. Schrinner argued that the committee had lost control of the financial management of the event, and that planning had devolved into a “pointless talkfest.”

“We don’t need overpriced stadiums, we need better transport,” Schrinner said. “This week, it became very apparent that the Intergovernmental Leaders’ Forum is a dysfunctional farce.” 

One of the most underexposed but influential sports ownership entities is accelerating its already extensive efforts in Minor League Baseball. 

Diamond Baseball Holdings, which owns 26 teams spanning all levels of MiLB, is nearing a deal to acquire the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox, the top affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. The pact, estimated at about $70 million, would help reset the market for MiLB team sales, which typically go for low-to-mid eight figures.

The Worcester deal also represents one of the most prominent acquisitions in Diamond’s history. The WooSox are one of the top-drawing teams in Triple-A baseball and play in Polar Park, which opened in 2021 and is widely seen as one of MiLB’s best stadiums.

“It’s time to sell this team and to move on,” WooSox chairman and co-owner Larry Lucchino recently said on the “UnAnchored Boston” podcast.

Times Of Transition

The soon-to-be 27 teams in Diamond’s portfolio represent nearly a quarter of MiLB’s 120. But the company reportedly has ambitions to own perhaps 50 teams and has acquired four others in just the last two months. 

Diamond began operations in 2021, soon after MLB completed a historic overhaul of the affiliated minor leagues. It was originally owned by Endeavor — an arrangement that soon ran into issues, as the MLB Players Association claimed it presented a conflict of interest because Endeavor also owns talent agencies IMG and WME. 

Private equity giant Silver Lake, also the lead backer of Endeavor, ultimately purchased Diamond.