Names & Faces: Agassi Loses U.K. Case On Sponsor Payments

Agassi Loses Appeal Of U.K. Tax Issue

Great Britain’s House of Lords has ruled against Andre Agassi, who “challenged the U.K. taxation of sponsorship payments” from Nike and other non-British companies while he played at tournaments such as Wimbledon. The defeat of Agassi’s $52,000 tax dispute blocks “other sports and entertainment figures from reclaiming millions from British tax authorities” (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 5/17).

TRE-MENDOUS ADDITION: Diageo, which imports Guinness, has tabbed ESPN/ABC NBA analyst Bill Walton to select the “most deserving recipient of the Ultimate Guinness Home Bar.” Contestants must submit their entries at www.guinness.com (BRANDWEEK, 5/15 issue).

SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN: PGA Tour sponsor Southern Co. has launched a regional TV campaign, via Fitzgerald & Co., “using golfers from the PGA Tour,” including the late Bobby Jones, who served as a Southern BOD member from ’48-71. One 30-second ad “opens with footage of Jones on the golf course and switches to shots” of other golfers like Nick Price, Ben Crenshaw, Jay Haas, Tom Watson and Brad Faxon. Jones narrates the ad “using the soundtrack from one of the instructional videos he made about the game” (ADWEEK, 5/15).

STEPPING RIGHT IN: IRL driver Jeff Simmons, who replaced the late Paul Dana for Rahal Letterman Racing after his untimely death in March, “has become a pitchman for” Ethanol, an organic-based fuel compound that “was championed by Dana.” The Ethanol Promotion & Information Council “backed Dana last season with Hemelgarn Racing as well as Dana’s addition to RLR.” Simmons: “If you’re going to have a sponsor you have to know about them. I have gone through a lot of information that last month to familiarize myself with it.” Ethanol has been added to the methanol used this season in the IRL IndyCar Series, which will be 100% ethanol-powered next season (USA TODAY, 5/17).