GOLFCHANNEL.com's Rex Hoggard wrote golfer Rory McIlroy at the end of this year is "poised to sign a 10-year deal" with Nike worth a reported $250M, and McIlroy "deserves whatever mega-deal his management team can conjure up." However, this is "delicate ground." The game of golf's "historical footnotes are filled with players who made ultimately harmful equipment decisions based on money and not competitive necessity." A PGA Tour player said, "He needs to ask himself if this is best for his game? Maybe it is, but that has to be the ultimate reason, not the money" (GOLFCHANNEL.com, 10/26).
AIMING FOR THE GUNNERS: In London, Matt Scott reported EPL club Arsenal’s "long-promised sunny commercial uplands appear to be taking shape as adidas prepares a blockbuster bid" to take over the club's kit deal from rival Nike. The Nike shirt deal expires in '13-14, and adidas’ interest is "set at least to double" the US$21M per year Arsenal earns from its Nike contract (London TELEGRAPH, 10/26).
JUST DO IT FOR CHARITY: In Portland, Allan Brettman noted this year marks the ninth time that Nike has partnered with Oregon Health & Sciences Univ.'s Doernbecher Children's Hospital to "create one-of-a-kind shoes, in limited quantities to raise money for the Portland hospital." The partnership has "raised slightly more than $4 million since it began and all sales proceeds benefit programs at Doernbecher." Nike and Doernbecher on Saturday night "came together for a fundraiser auction at the Portland Art Museum to unveil the shoes." If history "is any guide, the limited quantity shoes ... will be gone shortly after they become available" Nov. 30 nationwide online (Portland OREGONIAN, 10/28).
COLD PIZZA: In DC, Sarah Kogod reported local restaurant Paisano's Pizza filmed a TV commercial with Redskins WR Pierre Garcon "to advertise a buy-one-get-one promotion for every Garcon touchdown." But it "looks like Garcon isn't going to be holding up his end of the deal," as he is sidelined with a foot injury. Kogod wrote of the ad, "I haven’t seen it aired, so it’s possible the pizzeria didn't intend it for the public just yet" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 10/26).
