Press Conference Cancelled...

...Radaronline says Rachel Uchitel's press conference, as hosted by attorney Gloria Allred, has been canceled due to "unforeseen circumstances."  According to Radar, money is now being offered Uchitel to prevent embarrassing details from emerging.

As noted last night, the suggestion that Tiger's "organization" may have set up and paid her way to Australia implied others were involved in coordinating this side of Tiger's life.

Now, I know you guys label it blackmail (I'd call it a gift for time served), but why didn't this happen with the other women before they went public?

Comments

[tlavin]

The layers of this onion have some remaining ripe odors that will be offensive to still more olfactories.

[John Redcorn]

The Today Show clip reports Elin getting $5M to stay in the marriage (if she accepts).

I wonder how much Uchitel is being offered. Seven figures, easily.

[OB]

IMG to the rescue! Of course, they were probably about to be exposed as being in on this mess, so maybe they're helping Tiger with this payment? Say, 10%?

[John Redcorn]

So if they start the payoffs, where do they stop? Surely there are others, friends of friends, and so on, and so on. Oh what a tangled web, indeed.

[The O]

Its not blackmail if they reached out to her. Its blackmail if she called them up and asked for cash. Not sure if how the feds would look at a woman who said "I'll tell my story or not tell my story depending on who pays more money." I'm a lawyer, and that would be a good law school question.

[Minefats]

My gosh this is getting messy. This will not be a forgotten memory as smome have stated. This is going to do some long lasting, permanent damage to his image that I don't think he'll recover from. And I think there is a whole lot more to come. This is far from over.

[Tighthead]

What if his organization is a charity? Ouch.

I think the email of the Jeter fantasy was what may have made IMG cut a cheque - crap like that would make him much less marketable.

[John Redcorn]

The assertions that this is not going to hurt his endorsement value are wrong, I think. The common denominator here is deception and dishonesty, and Tiger will be forever looked at as being unpredictable in his public life. The fact that their team is scrambling to silence people leaves one wondering if there's something worse hidden in all this. He may be successful in limiting the damages of this scenario, but how can anyone be sure about the future. It might not be anything so dramatic as a sponsor pulling out on him now, but I would think that going forward, existing sponsors will, like Elin, take the opportunity to renegotiate, and he may have fewer offers from new sponsors.

[Jenna Tals]

All this was caused by certain people thinking with their ... genitals. All there really is to it.

[blader]

In a principled albeit completely inconsequential act of defiance, I was at Dick's yesterday and quietly bought some reebok shorts.

[Squeaky]

The notional value of Tiger, Inc. is dropping awfully fast. The biggest hit is the unannounced hostile merger with Elin, inc., which dilutes Tiger significantly.

Revenues will take a hit too. You have to think the more corporate sponsors -- American Express, Accenture -- will want nothing to do with Tiger for a while. They will not announce this, but you sure as heck won't see Tiger on those big Accenture billboards inside airports. It's likely they will want big haircuts on their deals -- why pay the guy if he has become hurtful to their reputation?

I mean, if Glorida Allred can shake these guys down, Accenture and American Express can do the same.

In other words, that widely quoted $100 million a year revenue stream is not $100 million any more.

[Margie]

Another payday from slumdog billionaire.

[Warren]

Sponsors should be huddling.

[E.P. Richardson]

Whoever suggested yesterday that all of this is a by-product of the stress of Tiger's life is right on, the more I think of it. No, it doesn't excuse anything. But it's inescapable: what person is really capable of handling the sort of life Tiger has? Nobody. Not without consequences. When you push on one side of a balloon, it bulges out on the other side. A surgeon told me once (he was talking about someone with ulcer disease) "everyone cries somewhere." Leading such a controlled life, primarily in his work, where he practices self control and discipline beyond anything we've ever seen in an athlete, and then to hold all of those business obligations together, and to have been doing it since being of college age, must put intense pressure on him to "act out" in some way. Maybe it was all an inner rebellion. Is it fair now to wonder whether the idyllic story of his father's perfect nurturing is perhaps an incomplete story? Could Tiger have deep-seated issues, philosophical issues, of the sort to which Agassi recently confessed? His exploits have been called super-human. Maybe he's achieved that level on the course, at the expense of his humanity off the course.

[10024]

This is just like Trump buying up land to build the course in Scotland -- last holdout always gets the best price.

Uchitel is the smartest of them all, among other things...

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

When all is said and done Tiger is going to be more like Mike Tyson than could have been imagined one week ago, from the financial point of view, that is. Maybe not exactly as broke as Tyson, but there may not be the cash flow to support "Privacy" or that thing he is building on Jupiter Island. Or the jet. Not when he ends up doing infomercials on Golf Channel to pay for college for Sam and Charlie. So much for the first billion dollar athlete.

[Chuck]

All of this is the first good news that Buick has gotten in five years. They got out of the Tiger market at its peak.

[Chuck]

But I do see some nice tie-in advertising campaigns by AT&T using Tiger. Voice mail services and text-messaging in particular.

[rb]

"Now, I know you guys label it blackmail "...nah...just cal it a "non-appearance fee"

[NRH]

Wonder if there will be any spots on GC/NBC this weekend showing Tiger as a pitchman - even for his foundation...

[Vwgolfer]

Guilty. Money will not make the problems go away. Of course Mr Perfect Billionaire will never figure this out cause he is obviously judging from that voicemail STUPID! Morality clauses in his contracts will start to creep into the public eye. Hey Tiger maybe next time a Hooker would more cost effective. You cheapskate. Mr. Privacy's worst nightmare is happening now. Goodluck Douchbag.

[Papa Bing]

Ky - Too bad you forgot to mention biting off Phil's ear.

[ed]

"The Today Show clip reports Elin getting $5M to stay in the marriage", why does this just sound wrong?

[Ringer]

To Geoff's question, about why this didn't happen with the others -- assuming facts not in evidence, that Radar is correct -- it's simple: Uchitel's way smarter, lawyered up, and recognized there was more to gain by getting both sides into the bidding. To quote Don Draper, "Oh, so we're negotiating?"

A question for the moralists: If Elin is demanding financial concessions to remain in the marriage, isn't that morally reprehensible too?

I knew all this would happen. Let straight people get married, and you can kiss the sanctity of the institution goodbye.

[jeff]

In addition to everything else swirling about (lying,cheating, lack of accountability), could it be the veil has also been pulled away with regard to that most important trait, "cool"? Tiger has much in common with Don Draper at this point: duplicity, uber-confident in his work, a decided lack of impulse control...but Tiger lacks any Mad Men cool if the one alleged text is any indication. A narcissist with a low-brow sensibility (the charming farting contests between he and Stevie come to mind). A Billion Dollar 8th Grader run amok perhaps, but not cool in the least.

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

Papa Bing:

Tiger will just have Stevie bite off Bones' ear, if Stevie is still part of Team Tiger when the next San Diego Open (or whatever it's called) rolls around.

[E.P. Richardson]

Interesting question, so even though I don't consider myself a "moralist," I'll take the bait, Ringer. I'd say it isn't morally reprehensible for Elin to renegotiate the prenup since, most likely, she was forced to sign it as a condition of marrying him in the first place. I'm sure he originated the contract, so she is simply asking him to modify it. If she's demanding a cash payment to stay married? That certainly smells bad, but I still don't know if it's morally reprehensible. One presumes that they married for love, and considered their marriage a emotional/spiritual union. If Elin now assumes that is irrevocably broken, does that rule out that she would remain married to him, under different conditions? They stay married, live together, raise their children together, but agree to live separate lives in other ways? I wouldn't rule out such a marriage as morally indefensible. There are probably millions of such marriages which have been highly successful, whether the conditions have been tacit or expressed.

[Tighthead]

She may be taking cash to appear married - stick around for a year, through the rough seas, quietly move into a separate residence down the road, etc.

[Chuck]

ed - you make it sound as though a $5 million payout to Elin (it sounds crazy to me, too) is nothing.

In fact, it would put her in Fourth place on the PGA Tour money list; behind Phil Mickelson at $5.3 millions and ahead of Zach Johnson at $4.7 million.

So she'll be exempt for next year.

[Buster]

Nookie trumps Nike.

[Miss Priss!]

Who's to say Tigress gets so deeply angered to the point where she does a Jenny Sanford and writes a tell-all about life with Tiger and his little wandering tiger for several million. Anyhow, I hope someone is taking good and close care of these two children who don't deserve any of this. Even at their age they can sense the tension and confusion in that home and family ... although they've probably gone to visit a mee maw or pee paw somewhere already. I hope. So who’s the most interesting golfer in world? Well, it’s still Tiger. Of course, now we’ll see what he’s really made of as a human being, father, husband. He had the game of golf covered a long time ago.

[10024]

MP, so you are saying you think Elin sent the kids away? "pee paw"...wtf?

As for the endorsements, people shouldn't hold their breath on the expectation of him taking any sort of a major hit. Even if they did go down 50% Tiger's day-to-day lifestyle wouldn't suffer one bit, and if Kobe's situation tells us anything it's that sponsors are sticky and there are always others ready to step up.

Do you really think Ken Chenault is going to fire Tiger Woods? Think about it.

This is a good read:

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/12/02/2009-12-02_nike_gillette_and_others_stand_by_.html

I suspect this story has about peaked and these sponsor statements were issued with the knowlege of the three women that have come forward.

[Jackie Chiles]

Surely Tiger would have gladly offered the cocktail waitress more than the $150 grand she received from US Weekly. It appears that sweet voice message he left her didn't strike a cord.

[Chuck]

The Belfast Telegraph is now reporting that David Feherty slept with Tiger on 20-25 occasions, during a four-year period ending in 2005. Gary McCord, who introduced Feherty to Tiger, says that he now feels terrible for Tiger, and claims that he did not know that Feherty had a drinking problem in those days. McCord said that he would make it up to Tiger, and might arrange for Tiger to meet Tom Cruise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Feherty

[E.P. Richardson]

Chuck are you starting a new career? Maybe a sit-com, in the mold of Seinfeld...."Counselor Chuck" perhaps?

[RM]

You know, the big winner in all of this might be...The FedEx Cup. Tiger might be really needing that $10mil bonus per year from now on. Heck, he might play 30 times next year, so he can: 1. Get out of the house. 2. Make as much money as he can. Might he play more Euro events for appearance fees?

[John Redcorn]

RM, whenever he starts playing again, I think we are going to see him play more, definitely.

[Jackie Chiles]

re: Chuck's last posting(s)
lmao

[Chuck]

E.P. - I am under contract to GeoffShackelford.com for the next seven years. I have a buyout provision, but it is only good if I am named the head football coach at Notre Dame.

[The O]

I know this will sound crass, but I think Tiger's sponsor's will think something like Jenna's comment about people thinking with their lower, um, brains and decide he's more valuable than ever. Think of how much commerce and advertisting is predicated on sex. Maybe if I play Nike balls, Drink Pepsi and use AT&T service*, I'll have tons of hot girlfriends too. Buy, buy, buy.

*Note, that if I used AT&T's wireless service, said girlfriends probably wouldn't be able to reach me.