Sharapova Eyeing Sponsor Deals That Provide Her With Equity

Sharapova Looking For Sponsorships, Like Cole Haan's, That Provide Her With Equity

IMG Tennis VP Max Eisenbud, who reps tennis player Maria Sharapova, indicated that she "may drop some sponsors in favor of agreements that give [her] a percentage of sales," according to Danielle Rossingh of the BLOOMBERG NEWS. Eisenbud said, "She wants to focus on deals where she has equity in, where she helps designing, gets a percentage of the sales." Sharapova last year did not renew deals with Gatorade and Tropicana, and Eisenbud said that she "instead extended a deal with U.S. clothing, shoe, handbag and accessory designer Cole Haan because it gave her the opportunity to be involved in design." Eisenbud: "We couldn't do both, so we had to make a choice. The focus now is on deals that she can develop after her career." Rossingh notes Sharapova is the world's "best-paid female athlete," earning about $22M in prize money and endorsements from nine sponsors, including Tiffany & Co., Sony Ericsson and Canon. Sharapova also has been a "muse to architect Frank Gehry, who designed earrings for Tiffany that Sharapova is wearing at the U.S. Open." Sharapova visited Gehry's Santa Monica, California, studio earlier this year and said, "A little part of each table had just things thrown together or papers thrown together in a certain way. In the middle of it all he had some ideas for some earrings that I was going to wear at the U.S. Open. It was completely crazy" (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 9/2). She added, "When Tiffany approached me and told me that he wanted to work on my earrings for the U.S. Open, I was completely blown away" (NEWSDAY, 9/2).

HONORING A LEGEND: The USTA and rapper Jay-Z have designed a T-shirt featuring Int'l Tennis HOFer Arthur Ashe that will be sold at this year’s U.S. Open. Proceeds from the T-shirts will benefit the USTA National Junior Tennis & Learning and the Arthur Ashe Endowment for the Defeat of Aids. The design is part of Jay-Z’s Rocawear clothing line (USTA).