AT&T chucks Tiger Woods as scandal won't 'simmer over'

AT&T Inc cut ties with Tiger Woods after his admissions of marital infidelity, following at least two other companies in backing away from their endorsements of the world’s top-ranked golfer. 

“We are ending our sponsorship agreement with Tiger Woods and wish him well,” Michael Coe, a spokesman for the biggest US phone company, said in an e-mail today. AT&T began a multiyear deal in February to place its logo on Woods’s golf bag and has sponsored his annual Tiger Jam benefit concerts. 

The carrier’s decision comes two weeks after Accenture Plc and Procter & Gamble Co began pulling away from Woods, who said this month that he’s taking a leave of absence from golf to work on his marriage. Investors in Woods’s sponsors lost as much as $12 billion after reports of his infidelity, researchers at the University of California at Davis said this week. 

“It’s like this is a snowball rolling and picking up speed,” Brad Adgate, head of research at New York advertising company Horizon Media Inc, said today in an interview. “I thought that now things would simmer over.” 

Accenture, which had built its marketing around 34-year-old Woods, ended its six-year relationship with the athlete on December 13. The day before that, Procter & Gamble said it would phase Woods out of its Gillette TV and print ads. Nike Inc and Upper Deck Co have stood by Woods, whose 14 major tournament wins are second only to Jack Nicklaus. 

AT&T hasn’t featured Woods in its advertising campaigns. Coe declined to disclose financial terms of the sponsorship agreement with Woods, No 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking. 

AT&T probably arrived at its conclusion after doing public opinion research, Adgate said. The Woods saga may dissuade companies from identifying themselves with any celebrity in the future, he said. 

“These celebrities are under so much scrutiny,” he said. “It’s very easy to punch holes through their images these days.” 

Unlike sports-specific Woods sponsors, such as Nike and Upper Deck, AT&T is a mass-marketing company, making it more likely that it would drop the golfer, Marc Ganis, president of SportsCorp Ltd, a Chicago-based sports consulting firm, said in a telephone interview. 

“The timing is a little curious,” Ganis said. “Dropping him mid-term is a different thing than not renewing him. I assure you they had to pay Tiger an exit fee. But other than the timing, it’s not that great of a surprise.” 

AT&T will still sponsor the U.S. PGA Tour’s AT&T National tournament, Coe said. Woods has been the host of the event, which benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation. The 2010 AT&T National is scheduled for July at the Aronimink Golf Club outside of Philadelphia. The company’s tournament sponsorship agreement is with the PGA Tour, not Woods directly. 

“We are looking forward to a successful tournament,” Ty Votaw, the Tour’s executive vice president, said in an e-mail. 

Neither Woods’s agent, Mark Steinberg, nor his spokesman, Glenn Greenspan, immediately responded to e-mails seeking comment. Upper Deck, a trading-card and sports-memorabilia provider, is continuing its relationship with Woods, Chief Executive Officer Richard McWilliam said this month. The company hasn’t changed its stance, Terry Melia, an Upper Deck spokesman, said today in an e-mail. 

Beth Gast, a spokeswoman for Nike’s golf division, said the Beaverton, Oregon-based company continues to back Woods. The world’s largest athletic-shoe maker said earlier this month it supports him and looks forward to his return to professional golf. 

AT&T, based in Dallas, dropped 29 cents to $28.03 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, closing 2009 down 1.7 per cent compared to the end of 2008. 

Woods’s sponsorship deals helped him earn more than $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Since turning pro in 1996, he has earned a record $100.2 million in career prize money, according to his Web site. 

Reports of Woods’s infidelity surfaced after a November 27 car accident outside his home near Orlando, Florida. Woods acknowledged in a December 11 statement that he had been unfaithful to his wife, Elin Nordegren. They have two children. 

“I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person,” Woods said then. “It may not be possible to repair the damage I’ve done, but I want to do my best to try.”