Tennis player Andy Murray is “going to become the battleground for an
increasingly powerful struggle between the big sports management
companies eager for his blessing,” according to Neil Harman of the
LONDON TIMES. Murray’s contract with XIX Entertainment expires at the
end of the year, and the “big boys are sniffing around.” XIX
Entertainment owner Simon Fuller was seated next to Murray’s mother Judy
from the Wimbledon quarterfinals “onwards,” and that position “smacks
of a significant strategic offensive.” Murray recently signed a $1.55M
deal “to wear Rado watches,” but it is “believed in the marketing world
that not enough has been done to encourage more leading companies to
get involved with a player who was on almost every front page across the
weekend and again yesterday morning.” It is “understood that IMG and
Lagardère have made significant pitches to the Murrays in recent months
and that XIX knows this and is concerned that it may soon lose its only
tennis asset” (LONDON TIMES, 7/10).
SILVER LINING FOR SPONSORS: MARKETING MAGAZINE’s Noelle
McElhatton wrote that Murray's failure to win Wimbledon “should not cause adidas’ marketers any sleepless nights -- this is one
cloud that has a silver lining." Murray following the match "stunned the
Centre Court crowd when he cried bitter tears of disappointment" after
losing to Roger Federer." With that “outpouring of passion, Murray
delivered a more valuable form of gold to his sponsor: authenticity” (MARKETINGMAGAZINE.co.uk, 7/10).