“I’ve got to get my answers straight,” Davis, 13, said with a smile after her team was eliminated from the Series on Thursday night. “Every question I can think of, I have to know the answer to.”
One of the questions already being asked is this: After becoming the first girl to throw a shutout at the Series, a ratings bonanza for ESPN, a cover subject for Sports Illustrated and a national figure of inspiration, should Davis try to cash in on her celebrity?
Sports marketing experts agree that Davis and her family must decide quickly. But few athletes face such significant decisions at such a young age. Estimates on her earning potential vary widely.
“The public’s memory is a lot shorter than it used to be,” Shabelman said.
Though Davis played with great composure and had remarkable success as a pitcher in the Series, she is expected to move quickly out of the limelight with football season beginning, Shabelman said. And she did not win a championship, which would have broadened her appeal to advertisers.
Davis might be able to earn $5,000 to $25,000 from a sports drink deal, Shabelman said. “It was a great little run, but there’s not going to be vast money from this unless she gets a movie done about her or a TV show, which is very unlikely,” he said.
Other experts estimated that Davis’s earning potential could be much higher, perhaps $100,000 a year alone from a shoe and apparel deal, and that, in the right circumstances, she might be able to pay for college without needing an athletic scholarship. A baseball signed by Davis sold Wednesday for $510 on eBay.
http://www.staunchsystems.com/UserProfile/tabid/61/userId/9040/Default.aspx
"I think it's ridiculous. That's absurd,'' said Steve Keener, CEO of
Little League, Inc., which hosts the Little League World Series in
Williamsport, Pa. "(But) I don't know how you would ever control it.
"We supervise the teams while they're here, but we're not with them every minute. So if any player in the Little League World Series signs a baseball for somebody, we have no idea what they're going to do with that baseball after they get it. In some respects, it shows you why a lot of Major League Baseball players are reluctant to sign autographs anymore.''
Brandon Steiner, owner of Steiner Sports, a leading sports memorabilia company in New York, said he would pay Mo'ne at least $25,000 to autograph between 500 to 1,000 items and estimated she could make up to $100,000 on the deal. But Steiner said he wouldn't make the offer because it could jeopardize Mo'ne's eligibility to play college athletics.
A federal judge last month ruled that the NCAA unfairly restricts college athletes from earning money based on their names and likeness – but the NCAA is appealing the decision and it's unclear how much athletes may be able to earn in the future and retain their eligility.
One of the questions already being asked is this: After becoming the first girl to throw a shutout at the Series, a ratings bonanza for ESPN, a cover subject for Sports Illustrated and a national figure of inspiration, should Davis try to cash in on her celebrity?
Sports marketing experts agree that Davis and her family must decide quickly. But few athletes face such significant decisions at such a young age. Estimates on her earning potential vary widely.
“The public’s memory is a lot shorter than it used to be,” Shabelman said.
Though Davis played with great composure and had remarkable success as a pitcher in the Series, she is expected to move quickly out of the limelight with football season beginning, Shabelman said. And she did not win a championship, which would have broadened her appeal to advertisers.
Davis might be able to earn $5,000 to $25,000 from a sports drink deal, Shabelman said. “It was a great little run, but there’s not going to be vast money from this unless she gets a movie done about her or a TV show, which is very unlikely,” he said.
Other experts estimated that Davis’s earning potential could be much higher, perhaps $100,000 a year alone from a shoe and apparel deal, and that, in the right circumstances, she might be able to pay for college without needing an athletic scholarship. A baseball signed by Davis sold Wednesday for $510 on eBay.
http://www.staunchsystems.com/UserProfile/tabid/61/userId/9040/Default.aspx
Bob
Dorfman, the executive creative director at Baker Street Advertising in
San Francisco and a sports marketing analyst, said he thought Davis
could earn up to $500,000 as a teenage role model endorsing products
from sports drinks to cellphones, computers, school supplies and
fashion.
“If it was my kid, why not?” Dorfman said. “She seems awfully poised. She seems like she can handle it.”
Having
pitched in front of crowds of more than 30,000 fans at the Little
League World Series, Davis plans to begin playing girls’ varsity soccer
and basketball, with far smaller audiences, at Springside Chestnut Hill
Academy in Philadelphia. Its teams play in the Inter-Academic League, a
conference of elite private schools, which is not bound by the governing
rules of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association.
On
Friday, officials at Davis’s school were trying to determine whether
league bylaws governed her ability to accept endorsements and remain
eligible for varsity sports.
“We’re
in an unprecedented situation with this kind of extraordinary talent at
such a young age,” said Kate Noel, the school’s director of external
affairs.
For
college eligibility in sports other than football and men’s basketball,
athletes are not considered prospects until they reach the ninth grade,
the N.C.A.A. said. Davis has not yet begun eighth grade, so it is
unclear exactly how the rules will later apply to her.
Also,
athletes can be considered professional in one sport and amateur in
another, as when minor league baseball players remain eligible to play
college football. So if Davis accepted endorsements related to baseball
but planned to play basketball in college, she might not be risking her
future eligibility as much.
“Once
enrolled in college, the student-athlete would be expected to take the
necessary steps to ensure that these ads are no longer being used,” said
Christopher Radford, an N.C.A.A. spokesman.
Given
the legal tumult involving the N.C.A.A., the rules could change
significantly by the time Davis enters college in five years.
“Ultimately,
it’s a family decision, but Mo’ne has a unique, timely and potentially
lucrative opportunity to take another step for all female athletes,”
said Lindsay Kagawa Colas, the vice president of action and Olympic
sports at the Wasserman Media Group in Los Angeles. “She’s inspiring
people of all ages, particularly girls. She’s a hero for them now.”
"We supervise the teams while they're here, but we're not with them every minute. So if any player in the Little League World Series signs a baseball for somebody, we have no idea what they're going to do with that baseball after they get it. In some respects, it shows you why a lot of Major League Baseball players are reluctant to sign autographs anymore.''
Brandon Steiner, owner of Steiner Sports, a leading sports memorabilia company in New York, said he would pay Mo'ne at least $25,000 to autograph between 500 to 1,000 items and estimated she could make up to $100,000 on the deal. But Steiner said he wouldn't make the offer because it could jeopardize Mo'ne's eligibility to play college athletics.
A federal judge last month ruled that the NCAA unfairly restricts college athletes from earning money based on their names and likeness – but the NCAA is appealing the decision and it's unclear how much athletes may be able to earn in the future and retain their eligility.
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