Rory McIlroy - 4 Time Major Winner

On the face of it this sounds like a ridiculous challenge from Rory - he signed an extention less than 6 months ago and is now claiming that he he didn't have the business acumen to decide that this wasn't a good deal for him and that the fees were excessive!? Like he didn't have a lawyer look through it.....

I could see him wanting to split but to try and reclaim monies already paid under a signed contract seems to indicate there must be something else at play - GMAC element perhaps?

He seems to have become overly obsessed with money recently which is a shame as it can only distract him from his golf.

Rippeditup wrote: »

You hire a lawyer to manage all this for you so the players lack of business acumen shouldn't be a factor here at all. If he done all this without a lawyer advising him well then he is an idiot in my opinion. These are massive sums of money and he was always going in this direction after he moved to the US as his profile was massive even before last season.

Also claiming to be a 22 year old and not given enough info is a bit rich IMO. Allot (if not most) sports stars are getting massive contracts from a very young age (footballers in their teens) and they somehow get the advice needed to make a deal happen so for me I think that is a bit rich. It's like going into a shop, buying your set of clubs off the advice of a shop assistant and then a year later returning them looking for the full value as they didn't hit every shot perfectly over the course of the year.

There has to be more that has not come out yet as otherwise it all sounds very amateurish and with sums of money like this I doubt things would be done so haphazardly

If he was poorly advised when signing the contracts, what is to say he is being any better advised in taking this action? According to the reports I've seen, Horizon made him very rich. His complaint seems to be mostly that their cut is too big but if he agreed to that...

Maybe he mostly needs better advisers.

First Up wrote: »

If he was poorly advised when signing the contracts, what is to say he is being any better advised in taking this action? According to the reports I've seen, Horizon made him very rich. His complaint seems to be mostly that their cut is too big but if he agreed to that...

Maybe he mostly needs better advisers.

Sounds that way.. Get experts in who have no other motivation (ie friends/potential business associates) who will take all emotion out of it.
It really feels like it was all done more as mates than business and when it went sour the numbers suddenly became a big issue.

The numbers don't lie most of the time and if you look at Rory's earnings they have seen a pretty significant jump after moving to horizon so that would say to me they have lived upto their side of a business relationship.

Rippeditup wrote: »

Apparently 20% is the going rate for off course earnings as this is where they should be adding value (And have) Looks like a pretty number if you can pick up 1 or 2 top players.

If you are a top player you then can work with some experts in the field and use your stature/contacts to manage some players and you are away.

Sounds much better than the 9-5 here during our cold winter.

Mad stuff in my view.

That is why he is setting up himself.

If Rory had no agent - he could have walked into Nike's office and got a deal with a solicitor.

So - the more I hear about the fees - the more sympathy I have for Rory.

G Mac in on it and all.

Look at the whole set up - without Rory they have nothing.

If it was 10 % or less - fair enough.

ajcurry123 wrote: »

Really Fixde?
This is the lad who is basing part of his legal case on the fact that he signed his contract under pressure because he didn't want to hold up the Horizon lads having their Christmas party.

On that basis I'd expect him to walk out of Nike with a deal that meant him giving them 50% of all his winnings just so he could use their gear.

His current court case is basically based on his incompetence to be able to do a deal.

20% to Horizon of a €200 million deal means he gets €160 million.
Joking aside, he wouldn't get close to €100 million if he went with himself and a solicitor.

Doing a deal like this is an art in itself, it's the bigger prize that needs to be remembered not the % cut.

I think 20 % is too much.

Honestly do. Rory does too. I know Rory - couldn't do a deal - but it is not as if Horizon were very experienced with a deal of that scale too.

BigChap1759 wrote: »

They originally made 20% of his off-course contracts which they negotiated and 5% of his on course earnings - this was renegotiated down in March to 15% of off-course contracts and nothing from on-course.

This is advised to be on the high side not not that unusual or outlandish no matter how it seems from the outside.

Sorry - just to get that right - 15 % is on the high side ?

So 20 % was a problem - as I expected ? + extras -

having a laugh they were.

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Sorry - just to get that right - 15 % is on the high side ?

So 20 % was a problem - as I expected ? + extras -

having a laugh they were.

No, the original deal was seen to be on the higher end but not particularly unusual. You seem to forget that all of the contractual negotiations are being handled by the agency. It is not like buying a 2nd hand driver of adverts....

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Sorry - just to get that right - 15 % is on the high side ?

So 20 % was a problem - as I expected ? + extras -

having a laugh they were.

An agent is offering professional expertised service which they would estimate to drive a higher efficiency than what the person/business can do by themselves. They would manage everything commercially for him so he doesn't need to worry and he can focus on his golf.
My feeling is the large fees (after he got the Nike deal) gave him a shock so they re-negociated which is normal if you buy in bulk you get better rates but Rory still felt hard done by. From reading about the case it feels like he just needs to pay to get out of the contract, forget about it and move on and enjoy his millions as in all honesty it will make no difference to him but the stress will affect his game (as we have seen).

20% is a fair charge imo,
for that they do absolutely everything for him (apart from wipe his a.s in the loo)
flights,accom,book appearances,sponsorship etc etc etc

20% worked for U2 and Paul McGuinness...

DuckHook wrote: »

I find it hilarious that some posters on here think they have the first clue as to the intricacies of a multi million sports contract when i would put money down that not one person on this thread has ever read the terms and conditions of any contract they signed for a phone/credit card/mortgage etc.

I have and am involved in a bit of work on commercial contracts from time to time, how much money are you putting down? I didn't note any T&C's in your post

DuckHook wrote: »

I dont believe you.

No no please, you have to believe me.

Rippeditup wrote: »

I also work on large transactional activity with agents being my main contacts on behalf of their clients. We have contracts in place for all activity and there is no way we would have situations like this

I don't believe you.

As an aside, I've made the mistake of referring to "Rory" as being the person making all these decisions.
Does anyone actually believe Rory is driving force behind this?
I don't, I think he is a puppet in this whole thing, a puppet in a lot of things both on & off course to be honest.

Casey has done well for himself, the new CEO of RMI, a very smart move to play Rory against the big boys over at Horizon, whilst lining himself for a lucrative new job.

His father also seems to have too much control, never a great thing in my opinion. Pure speculation, but my opinion is that he has been held back in his development as a man by having his father around 24/7.
It's time for Rory to grow up a bit, it's past the stage of "he's only a kid".
Kid's have to grow up fast when they 100's of million at stake or if they are one of the top golfers in the world.

Don't want to mention his missus too much, I ain't a fan, but I certainly think the relationship has a negative impact on his golf. Wouldn't begrudge him an auld love life, but you can't have it all, and a celebrity relationship isn't what the one of the best golfers in the world needs.

First Up wrote: »

Yep - a new dad, new girlfriend, new management and maybe throw in a new caddy while we are at it. That would just leave the same old Rory (OK - maybe get the old clubs back.).

Problem solved.

They all don't have to change, they would fall in line if he was just to grow (a set) up a bit.

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

But - is it not just like a tendering process.

Rory would have become available - gone to Nike - have a legal document prepared

Gone to Adidas - got a price
Gone to TM - got a price
etc , etc,
Back to Nike.

Of course negotiation is very important - but there is a market that they are not going to deviate from substantially. If it was too low - another major would take him , if they wanted him they would out bid that.

Anyway -20 % was too much - hence it being dropped.

The U2 analogy is not fully valid - McGuiness put everything on the line with U2 from day 1.

Rory was the finished article - Horizon got a golden ticket with Rory - he should have been able to negotiate a much lower % than the entire industry on the basis of the scale of money he was going to earn.

Anyway - I honestly can see why - Rory facing a 40 million euro bill - could be a problem (20% of 200).

It could easily have been a graduated scale to make it fair.

Anyway - amazing he entered into a deal like that.

Way more complicated than that Fix, Id estimate a full years work went into it from 2 or 3 people working on it pretty much full time.
I'm sure they got indicative figures to start off with from the main brands and there may have been some quick and easy benchmarks set, but the real work and real detail would come with the contract itself.
The detail and T&C'S that would be involved in this would be unreal.
Who gets what if a mug, ruler, watch etc etc is co branded with Nike & Rory...
The use of clubs...get out clause from using the putter... his obligations...what he can and can't say...what other brands he can and can't endorse, I'd guess the contract would run to 1000's of pages.

The 20% or 40 million wouldn't have been an upfront payment if he was still with Horizon. It would have been staggered to coincide with payments from Nike. They'd split them out of the 10 years I'm sure.
He may have to stump it up now, but that'd be a standard termination clause.