Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Sidney Crosby: It's always about the Money!
Uber-prospect (aka The ‘Next’ One) Sidney Crosby turned down a guaranteed ONE.....MILLION....DOLLARS from the WHA, but he’s about to make up for that pretty quickly.
According to an unconfirmed report by Sportsnet, Sidney is set to sign a very lucrative endorsement deal with Reebok/CCM:
I know quite a few of the ‘purists’ are crying in their beers about that fact that a pimply teen is going to be paid some big G’s before he’s ever laced up a pair of NHL skates, but I think this is great news! Reebok spent $202 million to buy CCM/Koho, so they obviously have the desire to pump a whole lot of cash into their hockey ventures.
One of hockey’s biggest problems (and there seem to be many) is the lack of marketing the NHL has done for its product, its teams, and especially its marquee players.
If an outside company like Reebok wants to splash a cool million and put Crosby in the spotlight, then I’m all for it.
Wayne Gretzky was quoted as saying that he believes Sidney Crosby could break his scoring records. Now, we know that will never happen, but the Crosby-Gretzky comparison could be valid.
What other NHL player has ever had any star-power reach outside of the core hockey circles in the USA? Federov? Kovalchuk? The only European athletes that North Americans care about are female tennis players and metrosexual soccer stars.
Lemieux?
No...just Gretzky
If Crosby gets a lot of hype and he performs like the scouts dream of, then perhaps he can be the second NHL player to gain some notoriety amongst the ‘unconverted’
According to an unconfirmed report by Sportsnet, Sidney is set to sign a very lucrative endorsement deal with Reebok/CCM:
Sidney Crosby is expected to sign a multi-year endorsement deal worth in excess of $1-million with Reebok / CCM, Sportsnet has learned. It will be his most significant endorsement to date. Crosby is already affiliated with Sherwood Hockey Sticks and Extreme Hockey Cards. The Rimouski star will join the likes of Vincent Lecavalier and Joe Thornton, who are already linked to Reebok / CCM.
I know quite a few of the ‘purists’ are crying in their beers about that fact that a pimply teen is going to be paid some big G’s before he’s ever laced up a pair of NHL skates, but I think this is great news! Reebok spent $202 million to buy CCM/Koho, so they obviously have the desire to pump a whole lot of cash into their hockey ventures.
One of hockey’s biggest problems (and there seem to be many) is the lack of marketing the NHL has done for its product, its teams, and especially its marquee players.
If an outside company like Reebok wants to splash a cool million and put Crosby in the spotlight, then I’m all for it.
Wayne Gretzky was quoted as saying that he believes Sidney Crosby could break his scoring records. Now, we know that will never happen, but the Crosby-Gretzky comparison could be valid.
What other NHL player has ever had any star-power reach outside of the core hockey circles in the USA? Federov? Kovalchuk? The only European athletes that North Americans care about are female tennis players and metrosexual soccer stars.
Lemieux?
No...just Gretzky
If Crosby gets a lot of hype and he performs like the scouts dream of, then perhaps he can be the second NHL player to gain some notoriety amongst the ‘unconverted’
