McLaughlin signs with big WME: Biggest shoe contract in track history about to go down.

I've written a few of these contracts in my time. Obviously not at this scale, but we will all find out what she signs for and you can thank me later.

Ok also, do these people not do maths?

Bolt earned $30 million a year.

How will this contract be record breaking by any stretch of the imagination? Even if it constitutes exactly all of those made up numbers posted??

Sanjay Gupta wrote:

Indoor? wrote:

I coach High School. By and large most of the kids this season could name 2 track athletes. Bolt and Sydney. Bolt because of how good he is and Sydney because she’s good and all over social media. If she breaks WR in 400H and is a 2-3 medal threat in 2020 she is going to transcend our sport.

Sydney’s only major wins are World Youth and NCAAs. She hasn’t made a final in any other comp. Do you really expect me to believe random high schoolers care about an athlete who hasn’t won anything major?

Allyson Felix was a phenom and got tons of accolades (in events that are much more competitive than the 400H) and she’s not well known at all.

When Sydney came to Lexington, it was a huge thing -- even the basketball players were into it, and they are generally treated like gods here. For the first time, people noticed that UK had a track team. With some marketing and a gold medal in 2020, she is going to be huge. Her only issue is that, unlike Bolt, I don't know that she will embrace it.

bbn wrote:

Sanjay Gupta wrote:

Sydney’s only major wins are World Youth and NCAAs. She hasn’t made a final in any other comp. Do you really expect me to believe random high schoolers care about an athlete who hasn’t won anything major?

Allyson Felix was a phenom and got tons of accolades (in events that are much more competitive than the 400H) and she’s not well known at all.

When Sydney came to Lexington, it was a huge thing -- even the basketball players were into it, and they are generally treated like gods here. For the first time, people noticed that UK had a track team. With some marketing and a gold medal in 2020, she is going to be huge. Her only issue is that, unlike Bolt, I don't know that she will embrace it.

Her problem is, unlike Bolt, she will never be the fastest man in the world. That's a piece of marketing she will never own in order to sell.

Even if she runs 50 for the 400 hurdles nobody outside of track cares.

Deluded wrote:

Her problem is, unlike Bolt, she will never be the fastest man in the world. That's a piece of marketing she will never own in order to sell.

Even if she runs 50 for the 400 hurdles nobody outside of track cares.

I agree. For all of her speed, beauty and grace, it would be hard to top the visage of Bolt charging down the straightaway looking like he was some kind of new step in the evolutionary process incarnate!

But this is so weird as She has already been ordained as The One. It ain't gonna be a skinny distance runner, it is going to be someone like Sydney. (I'll say in the run up to 2020, Sandi Morris deserves a big piece of the publicity cake as well).

This is an opportunity for the sport to get a lot more attention and as she matures a bit more over the next few years and gets more confidence, it will be interesting to see if she will be doing the late night talk shows. Right now, she seems a bit enigmatic but we know that the WME thing will make that change.

Ato Boldon:

"S.M. is about to be what FloJo would have been if she was starting out right now in this era, she has the look, she has the performance."

"America will fall in love with the 400h, you watch."

@indoor wrote:

Indoor? wrote:

Sorry, I’m a HS coach I’m going to know teenage girls. And no they don’t follow her because I told them to, they follow her because she’s popular. They bring up her posts. They tune into her races. They know her PRs.

Not sure why it’s so hard for you people to understand how big she is going to be. She’s going to be the Phelps of the next Olympics. She’s going to get paid accordingly.

Haha! Now we know you're trolling.

Trolling because I’m speaking from experience and it just happens to counter your made up narrative?

My name is Carey Hammel, coach of Shepherd Cross Country & Track in Michigan.

The power of having the WME agency is the issue.

WME agency is promising her (and I bet it's a contractual promise) that they'll get her enough money from outside the sport to say NO to any Nike/Adidas/Puma et al. offer.

No thanks I'll buy my shoes at Running Warehouse using the discount coupon from letsrun.com.

wineturtle wrote:

The power of having the WME agency is the issue.

WME agency is promising her (and I bet it's a contractual promise) that they'll get her enough money from outside the sport to say NO to any Nike/Adidas/Puma et al. offer.

No thanks I'll buy my shoes at Running Warehouse using the discount coupon from letsrun.com.

WME is her non-track agency. She also has a standard track agent for her shoe contract and to get into meets.

Met her last yr- not friendly and personable. No charisma. My impression is she thinks her s*** don’t stink.

She is not The One. I don’t care about her looks and social media presence. She’s a freakin 400m hurdler. She’s no Jackie Joyner-Kersee or Allyson Felix.

shes not The One wrote:

Met her last yr- not friendly and personable. No charisma. My impression is she thinks her s*** don’t stink.

She is not The One. I don’t care about her looks and social media presence. She’s a freakin 400m hurdler. She’s no Jackie Joyner-Kersee or Allyson Felix.

Spurned ya eh?

You're completely wrong.

wineturtle wrote:

The power of having the WME agency is the issue.

WME agency is promising her (and I bet it's a contractual promise) that they'll get her enough money from outside the sport to say NO to any Nike/Adidas/Puma et al. offer.

No thanks I'll buy my shoes at Running Warehouse using the discount coupon from letsrun.com.

McLaughlin's track agent is Wesley Felix (Alyson's brother) and she's likely to sign with Nike. Not sure where you're getting your info from but it is completely wrong.

shes not The One wrote:

Met her last yr- not friendly and personable. No charisma. My impression is she thinks her s*** don’t stink.

She is not The One. I don’t care about her looks and social media presence. She’s a freakin 400m hurdler. She’s no Jackie Joyner-Kersee or Allyson Felix.

What makes you so special that you think that you deserve her attention, pal?

Ha if only you knew.

how about no wrote:

wineturtle wrote:

The power of having the WME agency is the issue.

WME agency is promising her (and I bet it's a contractual promise) that they'll get her enough money from outside the sport to say NO to any Nike/Adidas/Puma et al. offer.

No thanks I'll buy my shoes at Running Warehouse using the discount coupon from letsrun.com.

McLaughlin's track agent is Wesley Felix (Alyson's brother) and she's likely to sign with Nike. Not sure where you're getting your info from but it is completely wrong.

There is a difference between handling her T&F career and signing sponsorship deals. If WME can get her more from a sponsor outside of T&F she does not have to sign a contract with a shoe company.

There is no rule that says she has to limit her sponsorship to shoe companies. If WME can get for instance Yum Brands ( parent company for TacoBell,PizzaHut& KFC) based in Louisville Kentucky to sign as a global brand ambassador why wouldn't she tell her T&F agent to walk away from the Nike table if she does not like their offer or restrictions on how much control she has over her other sponsorship deals

I'm not saying she will not have some shoe company paying her to wear their shoes just that with WME her sponsorship horizons are broader than just the spikes and kit world.

the new usain bolt?no.not a chance.shes amazing,and stunning,and sure she has a social media presence,but shes a teen phenom.nothing more.she might improve some more in the hurdles,but she has no chance of ever beating hassan of bahrain in the 400 flat,and hassan isnt much older than her.

She is going to get the largest FEMALE contract. Who is dumb enough to think she will make Bolt money? There would be no point to that topic anyways. Bolt makes more money than most the NBA guys.

Bold Truth wrote:

Ato Boldon:

"S.M. is about to be what FloJo would have been if she was starting out right now in this era, she has the look, she has the performance."

"America will fall in love with the 400h, you watch."

America might, but the world won't.

Outside of the American bubble, she will appear like just another American hurdler, of which there are many.

She will never demand global adoration like Bolt. There are so many factors that make it very unlikely.

Lyles has a chance, but he will need to step down and dominate the 100m also.

portland marketing group wrote:

rare wrote:

Not sure about how record-breaking, but I’m almost positive she’ll be the most popular American track athlete we’ve ever seen.

Maybe; she's no Galen Rupp.

History only began when you were born. Not long ago, it was not unusual for the faces of US track and field athletes to be seen

everywhere on endorsements and at appearances even 100 years ago. Jim Thorpe, Jesse Owens, Bob Richards, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Wilma Rudolph, Bob Hayes, Jim Ryun, Carl Lewis and many others were true household names even to those who had zero knowledge of track and field.

Not so in this era. McLaughlin could win multiple Olympic medals and still be known mainly to track and field fans, no matter how many Loreal and burger ads she does. There are just too many stations, channels, marketers and products out there. Besides, track and field lost the gloss for US fans at least 25 years ago.

Football, basketball, hockey and baseball are godzilla on the skyscraper when it comes to marketing and track and field is the puny citizen on the street running home.