UATGSPORTS

EA Sports’ venerable golf video game franchise appears to be taking a huge hit from Tiger Woods’ recent indiscretions that have played out in the most public of ways.

EA made the decision to stick with Tiger amid the scandal, but that decision has led to year-over-year sales declining by a staggering 40-50% overall.

According to the consumer market research firm NPD Group, Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘11 sold only about 1/3 of the volume the ‘10 edition sold last year during the game’s first month release.

EA Sports may be in need of a new brand strategy for their golf franchise, perhaps rotating cover players much like their Madden NFL or NHL releases, or pursuing a more generic strategy for next year’s release. Such a strategy may be especially necessary for the more family-oriented Nintendo Wii platform.

The problem? There isn’t exactly a successor waiting in the wings to take over as the franchise. Perhaps an indication that EA is aware that a change may be coming sooner rather than later, 21 year-old Irishman Rory McIlroy appears secondary to Woods on the ‘11 cover.

Unless Tiger starts winning, EA will need to re-evaluate the strategic direction of the PGA Tour video game.

Cleveland Browns rookie signal caller Colt McCoy has signed a multi-year endorsement deal with with Russell Athletic. McCoy was the 85th overall selection (3rd round) in the 2010 NFL Draft from the Texas Longhorns.

Colt McCoy will be a spokesman for all of the company’s brands, including Spalding.

The deal with Russell Athletic is consistent with the visibility McCoy will garner in Cleveland after gaining a national profile during his tenure at The University of Texas at Austin.

Reebok is the current official on-field supplier of the National Football League.

The NHL’s New York Islanders have inked a sponsorship deal with Cupcake Gourmet, a Long Island bakery. The unusual sponsorship will see cupcakes incorporated into concessions at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum with profits split between Savor, the concessions operator, and Cupcake Gourmet.

The sponsorship is the first of its kind in the NHL. NHL-wide sponsorship deals trending toward the likes of Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of the BlackBerry.

Official release from the New York Islanders here.

According to the sports sponsorship evaluation firm Joyce Julius, LeBron James’ hour-long ESPN special nearly US $3 million in exposure to eight brands — roughly the same dollar value as the Cavs jerseys that have since been set a blaze on the streets of Cleveland.

The brands were Apollo Group, Bing, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Facebook, McDonald’s, Microsoft, University of Phoenix and Vitaminwater. Bing, Microsoft’s rival search engine, and the University of Phoenix were title sponsors of the ESPN broadcast. In total the brands gained seven minutes and 54 seconds of total exposure, according to Joyce Julius, and were mentioned by James and/or ESPN on 31 separate occasions.

The University of Phoenix was afforded the greatest exposure during the telecast. Verbal references and graphics featuring the school’s logo amount to over US $1 million worth of brand exposure.

Microsoft’s Bing search engine brand benefited to the tune of US $873,000.

The Boys and Girls Club of America, which according to James’ camp will be the benefactor of all advertising proceeds, received about US $500,000 worth of brand exposure.

Some interesting information related to how the firm calculates brand exposure on television broadcasts can be found in a Joyce Julius press release.

Early indications LeBron may be Scottie Pippen to D-Wade’s Michael Jordan. Marketing implications? Potentially many (and not good).

The 19 June cover of Sports Illustrated has Dwayne Wade prominently in center with LeBron and No. 1 ESPN fan Chris Bosh taking a back seat.