Tiger Woods may breakup with IMG after the company refuses to renew Mark Steinberg's contract
Tiger Woods’ endless woes are now seeping through to his longtime sports agency International Management Group (IMG) and the company has reportedly refused a renewal of Woods agent, Mark Steinberg’s contract for another three years. Steinberg had a long
association with the champion and was managing Woods’ portfolio for the company for several years.
The contract expired last week and Steinberg was hoping for another extension in hopes that the company would bank on Woods’ possible comeback in the sport and help him retain his job. IMG board of directors decided otherwise and figured it was more expensive
to keep the agent whose contribution to the company’s portfolio has dropped to a meager $1.1 million. Steinberg used to generate a lot more for the company before Woods’ unfortunate fall from glory.
The company, however, still wants to stick with the 14-major winner in hopes that the champion would reverse his whirlwind downfall to ultimately regain the top slot, but it seems less likely that Woods would want to stay with IMG after Steinberg’s departure.
IMG made $7.8 million in 2007 out of the lucrative endorsements and sponsorship deals with Woods. The multi-million dollar sponsors included the likes of AT&T, Gatorade and Accenture.
The company reserves some percentage of the endorsement deals and places a cap to the minimum amount the player has to pay to the company. Woods’ payment to the company was a lot lower than the earlier years and IMG feared the total amount might not even
surpass Steinberg’s annual salary. The company therefore, considered it appropriate to not extend his contract for the next three years.
A source from Sports Business Journal (SBJ) revealed that Steinberg "would have made about $3 million this year in salary and bonuses, significantly more than the fees Woods would have generated."
Woods began working with IMG in 1992 and has been associated with it since then. Steinberg became his agent six years later and the duo became close friends during their association.
The New York based firm, IMG was founded by an American lawyer Mark McCormack and was later taken over by Theodore J. Forstmann, better known as Teddy Forstmann. IMG, today stands as the largest databank production house of televised sports and manages a
library of more than 150,000 hours of sports coverage. The company is involved with 11 major sports around the world and also manages players like Luke Donald, Paula Creamer, and several PGA and LPGA stars.
IMG’s course designing firm has laid out several lucrative course designing projects around the world. Recently, the company has showed interest in designing a course in Vietnam and will carry out the work in association with current world number one Luke
Donald. It will be the first course design venture for the 33-year-old Englishman.
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