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

Indoor? wrote:

@indoor wrote:

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.

Duly reported to the authorities.

She needs to leak naked photos of herself so that i can go back to concentrating to her efforts on the track. Thank you.

-- signed every male known to man

I'm still not following your logic. Allyson Felix is sponsored by a bunch of major global brands (Gatorade, Acuvue, Visa, AT&T, P&G) in addition to her Nike sponsorship. Why do you think Sydney would have to "walk away from the Nike table"? Why would she "not have to sign a contract with a shoe company"? She will obviously have sponsorship opportunities both with shoe companies and more broad reaching global brands.

Whilst she is a wonderful talent with potential I am very sceptical as to whether she will be the "face" of athletics. She really isn't known at all in Europe. She has ran very well in the US, but she will *never* be on the same level as Bolt.

When Bolt turned up to meetings, all tickets were sold out. You had hundreds of children and adults trying to sprint down to the front of the track (when his races started - screwing up the action for everyone else) to try and get selfies. I have never seen that off any other athlete. I doubt I will again. You only need to look at Wayde Van Niekerk and his injury to realise how athletes can suddenly become hurt, and once hurt they may never return to the same level.

I'm not trying to be overly negative, and do think it is likely that she will break the WR. However I do think that she made a mistake in not competing in the world junior champs in Tampere earlier in the month, and if she does want to be a superstar, then perhaps not considering yourself so superior to the competition so there is no point in turning up, might be a good start.

vivalarepublica wrote:

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?

Only a family or friend will write something like this. She is not that friendly.

bobby sss wrote:

vivalarepublica wrote:

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

Only a family or friend will write something like this. She is not that friendly.

Only a family or friend or anyone that understands women.

DMulvee wrote:

She really isn't known at all in Europe. She has ran very well in the US, but she will *never* be on the same level as Bolt.

When Bolt turned up to meetings, all tickets were sold out.

People keep posting stuff like this. She's 18 years old! What kind of hype did Bolt have at 18?!

Apart from the sensationalist headline, I don’t think many people on here have said she will make more than Bolt. Take a few deep breaths.

gtgteed wrote:

Throw out some numbers if you think it's going to be record breaking...

$3mil/year base?

$5mil/year?

Curious

Absolutely no way!

The highest paid young athlete was Alan Webb at $250K; Webb was White and in a glamour event. I doubt she signs for more than $500K a year, albeit she will be able to make nearly twice that amount in total comp. No matter what, as a 19 yo, she will have more money than she knows how to spend.

Narrowcaster wrote:

@kljkk wrote:

If by "people" you mean you, then yeah, sure. But last I checked the athletes you have listed haven't lost any endorsement deals. Though I'm sure a few more basement dwellers will chime in to agree with you. And "people" can't be tired of Alison Felix, when 99% of people don't know who she is.

Go ask a hundred random people to tell you who she is. It might not be 1 out of 100, but you'd be hard pressed to get 10 out of 100.

Of course, that's true because in track and field you only get the national spotlight every 4 years. She could make national news as early as next year, female records are so rarely broken that if she breaks the 400h WR all of the media outlets will cover it.

just a thinker wrote:

DMulvee wrote:

She really isn't known at all in Europe. She has ran very well in the US, but she will *never* be on the same level as Bolt.

When Bolt turned up to meetings, all tickets were sold out.

People keep posting stuff like this. She's 18 years old! What kind of hype did Bolt have at 18?!

Bolt had became the youngest winner in the history of the world junior champs and had gone sub 20 and 45.3 by then. I actually remember placing a bet on Bolt to win the Olympics in 2004 (along with Ivet Lalova in the women's). Bolt was known as someone who could be amazing.

Sad but true. Even Sports Illustrated all but gave up their track and field coverage.

McLaughlin may not be able to part the waters but she sure as hell has so much potential that all of us are salivating.

I just hope she can manage all of these enormous expectations. So far, so good, as she has resisted doing the Diamond League meets. Hopefully, she'll get a little humility in this process as well but I can't see anybody taking her down in the hurdles in the foreseeable future. Maybe she'll come back late season and run a few more meets now that she has solid management.

Very true. Most who read Lets Run can name all the big stars of track and field. But I don't care how big they are ; Bolt, Rupp, Carl Lewis, Centro, etc - If you go outside our track circle few would know them. I often would excitedly tell people "my friend X won multiple Olympic and world medals in X event" and they look at me, "who?" There's a reason Serena, and Tiger and Michael Jordan have been well known,..its the sport. (How many people watch track unless its the Olympics.)Same will be true for Syd. She may be the hottest and most well known T&F star in the next few years in the US and then hopefully, eventually globally , but I don't see her becoming a mainstream sports celebrity.

@Bob schul wrote:

Bob Schul Country wrote:

Think about it.....there are no major females being marketed out there. WNBA, PGA, MMA, Nascar etc...... nothing. She is the face of female athletes in the next 5-10 years. After gold in the 2020 olympics she will be raking $15 mil a year

I know she doesn't resonate with the fine people on this forum, but Serena is an enormous star worldwide.

she doesnt resonate with many people because she is old.

@bobby sss wrote:

bobby sss wrote:

Only a family or friend will write something like this. She is not that friendly.

Only a family or friend or anyone that understands women.

A person that understands the attitudes of attractive and talented young women that get oodles of attention simply for existing writes something like this. It's a perspective that few of us will ever understand because most of us struggle for attention while Sydney is sitting there getting tens of thousands of likes on Instagram for a mirror selfie. She has no reason to be nice and friendly and personable to you. Or me. Or any of us.

I'm not saying no shoe contract just that her bargaining chip on her first shoe contract is that she will have other revenue streams and saying no to an overly restrictive shoe company offer is not an empty threat.

To too many T&F athletes the shoe contract is the only offer they are going to get. Too often the shoe company can say it's this or nothing.

SMcL is not going to have to take a job a her local shoe store just to survive during a long contract negotiation.

Plus Wes Felix will have a slew of top level folks from WME in his corner.

Again Of course she'll take shoe money. I'm saying how many athletes have been able to say something like "unless you have 5 year contract offer you can't sit at my negotiating table".

You can be sure any suitor who knocks WILL have a 5 year deal plus some pretty flowers and a freekin' big box of candy along with their checkbook..

we all know the'll come in too low and she'll ask to much but I think the WME connection added significantly to what they would have given as a first offer. At the barest minimum it took a couple/three steps out of the process.

Lol, don’t put Bolt in that category. He is ranked #7 by ESPN. If you don’t know who Bolt is, you just don’t follow sports period.

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/worldfame100/espn-world-fame-100-top-ranking-athletes

Amerikano wrote:

Lol, don’t put Bolt in that category. He is ranked #7 by ESPN. If you don’t know who Bolt is, you just don’t follow sports period.

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/worldfame100/espn-world-fame-100-top-ranking-athletes

And as you note not another track athlete on the list of top 100. My guess you take it out to top 200 and no other track athlete makes the current list.

Signing with WME will not get her jack in the shoe market, companies know their net top value to pay an athlete and ROI they give back. Im sure WME have visions of lets do a branded shoe for her. She has a long way to go before that happens. If they are trying to do the shoe deal their experience is limited. Felix is their only active track athlete that Im aware of. Carl Lewis is a speaker for them.

WME are just a bunch of marketing hype people that will call the expected opportunities.

Fluid replacement, luxury watch brand, auto, credit card, given her use of facial cosmetics a cosmetic company etc. etc.

Her not running this summer was to not devaluate her worth. If she would have gone to Europe and lost a race or two that becomes a negative during negotiation, she's beatable. Brands are buying in on the future.