BANDIT Ponders if Tiger made Nike lose the plot?

75million reasons to be happy

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Jan 15, 2010, 12:01 ET

COPENHAGEN, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Maria Sharapova has a lot to smile about, and (her tax man plus assorted employees) will be sleeping soundly this week. Reason being, that she's inked a very, very nice deal with Nike.

Now they're grown-ups in Oregon, but to be honest with you we're worried for Nike on this one... the deal catches the headlines and there is normally much more to it than the 75million USD over 8 years (How much tax? What image and digital rights has she relinquished? yadda yadda yadda). But that's not what we mean…

No - we mean on a strategic level - Is Sharapova that influential?

There are some that think so…

''Sharapova is one of those stars whose name transcends sports, similar to David Beckham,'' said Stefan Szymanski, an economics professor at the Cass Business School in London. ''She's become an international celebrity first, and an athlete second.''

We don't and maybe even worse, we are seriously wondering if Nike have fallen and hit their collective heads on something hard!

Read the full blog post here: http://thisisbandit.com/?p=7549

The BANDIT Blog: www.thisisbandit.com/?page_id=216

SOURCE BANDIT