BOLT STANDS TO EARN LIKE NO OTHER TRACK ATHLETE HAS EVER EARNED

Usain Bolt just inked a deal with PUMA that the shoe and apparel company claims makes him the highest paid track and field history.
Most media reports suggest that the deal amounts to about US$10 million a year or about J$850 million – good money by any standard.
Bolt’s manager Norman Peart confirmed on my show – Sportsnation Live on Nationwide 90fm – this week that there is a licensing component to the deal, that my sources tell me could earn the fastest man in history more than US$100 million. That’s a lot of cheese.
Here is how I come to this conclusion.
Puma is about to launch another line of apparel with the Bolt logo and for this Bolt gets a percentage of the sales of those apparel. Puma is also going to launch a new line of shoes for Bolt as well. If you recall after Bolt broke the world record in the 100-metre sprint in Beijing, China at the 28th Olympiad, Puma experienced a significant spike in shoe sales. There is also a fragrance coming out with Bolt’s name attached.
According to Forbes Magazine Puma intends to grow its revenues from about US$2.5 billion to about US$4 billion. I would suspect that the sale of Bolt apparel would contribute significantly to those projected earnings.
If we assume that Bolt commands 10-15 percent of the licensing on those products that have his name attached, the athlete stands to earn quite significantly if Puma achieves its objectives.
Bolt is already one of the most popular athletes in the world. His exploits over the last two years setting five world records in the last two major meets – the Olympics and the World Championships – have made him one of the most influential athletes in the world of sport. His media market value was estimated at more than $350 million. It’s safe to say then that should Bolt surpass his own records next year in Daegu, South Korea, Bolt could easily become as big a global star as Michael Jordan or a Tiger Woods. Puma could ride his coat-tails to unprecedented levels of success and make Bolt even richer than he is now. This would be especially true if Bolt can set the world alight on the biggest of stages at the Olympics in London in 2012.
He is already extremely popular in the UK so success in London could conceivably make Bolt as rich as any sport star in any sport in history. It seems no matter where you turn Bolt’s greatness cannot be denied.