Walk into any golf pro shop or just watch a Masters highlight reel on YouTube, and you’ll be sure to come across the iconic “TW” logo that Tiger Woods made famous with Nike. But that moniker was nowhere to be found when Woods unveiled his new TaylorMade-backed brand, Sun Day Red, which sports a brush-drawn tiger logo.

“I don’t want it back; I’ve moved on,” Woods said when asked about the logo at this week’s Genesis Invitational, where he is making his return to the PGA Tour. That was interesting phrasing by Woods, whose company ETW Corp owns the “TW” logo, according to filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 

Trademark attorney Josh Gerben, the founder of Gerben IP, tells Front Office Sports that there are likely practical and legal issues at play. Woods could just want to start over with new branding, but it may also be out of his hands. “You could see where Nike would have issues in how much time and effort and money they spent creating the brand awareness,” Gerben says. Contractual details from Nike’s endorsement deal with Woods could be preventing any further use of the logo.

When tennis legend Roger Federer split from Nike, it took him two years to obtain the rights to his “RF” logo, which he now uses on merchandise from Uniqlo. Clippers star Kawhi Leonard wasn’t as fortunate, ultimately losing a lawsuit over the copyright for his Klaw logo, after he left Nike for New Balance. “There’s definitely this history of Nike saying, wait a second, you all can’t just walk out the door with all the value we helped you create,” says Gerben.

Without seeing the details of Nike’s contract with Woods, it’s impossible to know whether the golfer could ever be allowed to use the “TW” logo again, according to Gerben. Sun Day Red merchandise doesn’t go on sale to the public until May 1, but on Thursday, a search on Nike’s website showed 18 items still available for purchase under the Tiger Woods Collection.

One of the most heavily anticipated sets of sports facility renderings is perhaps nearing a release after months of delays, and a major gaming and resort executive claims to have seen them. 

The A’s were due to release in December the latest set of drawings for their planned Las Vegas ballpark. But while team owner John Fisher recently said the renderings are still being finalized, MGM CEO Bill Hornbuckle said he’s viewed several different site plans for the ballpark. The stadium is set to be built on the current site of the Tropicana Las Vegas, and MGM owns several adjacent properties, most notably its flagship MGM Grand resort.

“We’re waiting to see where that lands. I have to believe in the next 30 to 60 days we should find out more,” Hornbuckle said of the A’s stadium in an earnings call with financial analysts. “I’ve been shown three different versions of [the ballpark] in terms of where it will actually sit on the site and how it will connect [with Las Vegas Boulevard]. Once it settles in, we’ll get serious about what we might want to do and how we might want to communicate with it, if you will, in terms of pedestrian traffic.”

Hornbuckle also plans to use the stadium as a catalyst to upgrade the 30-year-old MGM Grand, saying “it needs some love.”

Many sports facility renderings fail to live up to their initial hype, and the A’s admitted the first batch of drawings for their planned ballpark in Las Vegas were garbage, acting largely as just a tool to win $380 million in public funding toward the $1.5 billion stadium project. But in this case, the new A’s renderings could go a long way toward answering how the team will try to make work a nine-acre site—which will be one of the very smallest among MLB ballparks—located along a very busy thoroughfare. 

Already, there are serious doubts it can work. Earlier this month, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said on the Front Office Sports Today podcast that the current ballpark plan “does not make sense.”

Back to the Table

As A’s officials met with Oakland city officials Thursday about a potential lease extension—marking a surprising revival of talks between the two sides—sources close to the FOS Today podcast said that A’s senior adviser and former head of baseball operations Billy Beane leaned on Fisher to meet again with city officials. Both the city and team described the meeting as a positive session and plan to continue negotiations, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. 

U.S. Rep Barbara Lee (D., Calif.), whose district is based in Oakland, has even bigger aspirations for the session.

“I hope this meeting signals a willingness to reignite conversations about keeping the A’s in Oakland long term,” Lee tweeted. “It’s become abundantly clear that the A’s are valued in the East Bay more than anywhere else.”