Jordyn vs Gabby: Who is more marketable?

[rfisher]

The landscape has changed A LOT since 1995. Figure skating isn't the powerhouse it used to be post Tonya/Nancy.

Shawn Johnson (Coca Cola, McDonalds, Nike, P&G) and Nastia Liukin (Visa, Adidas, AT&T, TIGI) have landed far more endorsements than figure skating silver medalist Sasha Cohen has following the Olympics(and in the lead up). As the above have proved, there is life beyond cereal boxes and clothes. You just have to have the right factors going in your favor.

Shawn had a savey agent and got her the DWTS gig which boosted her earning power beyond the typical silver medalist. Very astute marketing. I hope Gabby gets a good agent and her family engages a good financial manager. She will need both to maximize her earning potential and to keep what she earns. She'll have 4 years at max. Hopefully, she can secure a good future for herself.

[centerstage01]

I do hope Gabby's family can get a good financial manager, especially as people are now digging into her mother's finances and publishing her debts for everyone to see.

Will we learn her credit score, too?

Careful to anyone reading...they do spoil Gabby's results in uneven bars.

[LuckyCharm]

Gabby for DWTS!!!

[Karpenko]

I do hope Gabby's family can get a good financial manager, especially as people are now digging into her mother's finances and publishing her debts for everyone to see.

Will we learn her credit score, too?

Careful to anyone reading...they do spoil Gabby's results in uneven bars.

NBC published an article too with lots of details on Natalie's financial situation from the past couple of years that I didn't need to read about. I really feel that NBC in particular is bordering on sociopathic territory when it comes to invading peoples personal space and living off of the negative emotions the athletes give when they are at low moments. It's always been there but never to this extreme for me - I felt sick to my stomach and really uncomfotable reading the article, this kind of stuff is nobodies business and the amount of detail it actually goes into is really disturbing IMO. I get that its all because of how much money Gabby is about to make, but its just as low of taste as you can really get IMO. Between this and the Jordyn stuff from prelims, the most fabricated coverage we have ever had, I have lost a very big amount of respect for NBC this Olympics.

[FSfan107]

Good article on Gabby's potential endorsement landscape here:


http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/dol...-gabby-douglas


Gabby has the same agent that represents Shawn Johnson, Sheryl Shade.

[barbk]

I'd guess that swimmers are more marketable in part because there's a much, much better chance that someone like Missy Franklin makes the US Olympic team in 2016 than Gabby does, and a reasonable chance that Franklin makes the 2020 team, and virtually no chance Gabby does. The plethora of medals in swimming doesn't hurt either, given all the relay combinations.

[Blondie12]

I wonder why the foreign gymnasts don't go on the tour. Are they not invited? Do they not want to come? Seems different from figure skating where foreign skaters often go on the tour.

I wonder too if there is just a different dynamic because of the "team" element as that puts a greater nationalist spin on things...

It would be cool to see Beth, Aliya, Victoria, He, Ppnor, Izbaza etc. on the tour.

Does anyone know if those countries have their own tour? Like will the Russians tour or the Chnese? Maybe they do but only if they win gold.

[Spareoom]

It's a USAG sponsored tour, and they make their money by not only including the Olympic teams and other famous US gymnasts, but by also including some local favorites as well.

If the tour was sponsored by some other company then I think it would get more international gymnasts, but as it is it's very much a USAG tour, born and bred. Anyway, they've already got like fifty million gymnasts doing the tour this year; I don't think there's room for anyone else. :p

It would be cool if gymnastics was popular enough again to warrant getting international stars to participate, though! That would rock. Sort of like how professional gymnastics was really a good economy twenty years ago, with special competitions and tours.

[Blondie12]

I also read that Gabbys father did not get Tickets to see her win her gold. He was in London but had to watch at the hotel with his family bc he could not get tickets. That is so sad. I saw him at trials watching her live. gabby also talks about her father saying they talk over Skype and all and she cried when she saw him.

It just seems so weird that he would not have been able to get tickets. No matter what issue there is bw parents you would have thought they would let him be in the arena.

With millions coming in and such a public dispute between parents I agree this could turn into a Moceanu situation. Gabby, I don't think, would be as forceful as Dominic to protect herself. It should all be placed in trust for Gabby. I could see the mom using some to pay off house etc to provide for Gabby but they should keep millions for Gabby for later.

By contrast if this were Jo I would have no doubt her parents would keep it in trust for her.

[Cheylana]

I hope Gabby's mishaps on bars and beam don't tarnish her gold medals insofar as endorsement potential.

I do hope Gabby's family can get a good financial manager, especially as people are now digging into her mother's finances and publishing her debts for everyone to see.

Will we learn her credit score, too?

What a crap article. It claims Gabby's mom "attacked" her white host family for not knowing how to do Gabby's hair, but the quotes do not support that at all! There was another article recently saying Gabby called her father a deadbeat dad, but nowhere in the article did she call her dad that.

Poor Gabby, no wonder she was upset. Have some class, media!

[skfan]

should this now be titled: gabby vs aly raisman, who is more marketable?

stable family, parents together.

don't they both lose to missy franklin? does missy have to turn down all endorsements if she wants to do NCAA?

ETA: barbk makes a good point in #66.

[Yehudi]

I wonder why the foreign gymnasts don't go on the tour. Are they not invited? Do they not want to come? Seems different from figure skating where foreign skaters often go on the tour.

I wonder too if there is just a different dynamic because of the "team" element as that puts a greater nationalist spin on things...

It would be cool to see Beth, Aliya, Victoria, He, Ppnor, Izbaza etc. on the tour.

Does anyone know if those countries have their own tour? Like will the Russians tour or the Chnese? Maybe they do but only if they win gold.

I remember way back when, the Soviets used to do exhibition tours, and it wasn't just AG but also RG and acro. It continued with the Russian teams doing a bunch in France, when Arkaev and Elvira Averkovich were running things but now have stopped.

[Yazmeen]

should this now be titled: gabby vs aly raisman, who is more marketable?

stable family, parents together.

don't they both lose to missy franklin? does missy have to turn down all endorsements if she wants to do NCAA?

ETA: barbk makes a good point in #66.

Yes, AFAIK, Missy is turning everything down because she wants to swim in college.

I really, really Aly is very marketable; she is beautiful, strong, a great sportswoman, and she really came through for the US. She deserves every bit as much as Gabby endorsement-wise.

[duane]

By contrast if this were Jo I would have no doubt her parents would keep it in trust for her.

You don't know what her parents would do!

She deserves every bit as much as Gabby endorsement-wise.

There are definitely enough endorsements to go around for everyone, but the biggest individual prize is the All-Around gold medal. IMO for that alone, if anyone is most deserving, it's Gabby.

[missing]

I've been waiting to read this thread and finally did.

Gabby is (in my untrained opinion) wildly marketable. I know I wanted her to win the All Around since sometime during the picking the team process, because she was so darn cute. I imagined her on the Wheaties box, little suspecting it would be Corn Flakes instead.

But during the course of the Olympics, it's Aly who has had the best story arc. She's been given the Rachael Flatt edit- hard working, dependable, which isn't exactly glamour city. And then there was a lot of Poor Jordyn.

But it was Aly who lose a bronze on a technicality (unfair, unfair!), and it was Aly, who not merely won a bronze on a technicality, but did it with famous gymnastic coaches screaming in the audience. And it was Aly who won on the last, and for Americans, most favored, event, while Gabby won nothing after the AA.

So Gabby is the winner, but Aly is the underdog Cinderella kid. Not that NBC necessarily sees it that way, since they had their script in place before the Olympics began, and they're not great at thinking on their feet.

I think and hope that Gabby will make lots of money, but I think and hope Aly will do all right for herself as well.

[Karina1974]

And it was Aly who won on the last, and for Americans, most favored, event, while Gabby won nothing after the AA.

Aly also didn't have a bunch of morons judging and criticizing her for not expressing her ethnicity "properly" much less the media buttinskis making her family's financial situation public, either. An adult is, or should be, strong enough to be able to compartmentalize it while the competition is going on and deal with it afterwards, but that's asking a lot of a 16 year old, especially one who's just nailed the biggest accomplishment of her life.

[barbk]

+1 to Karina1974.

I'd DQ the media. Pump up, kick down. Rinse and repeat.

[missing]

Aly also didn't have a bunch of morons judging and criticizing her for not expressing her ethnicity "properly" much less the media buttinskis making her family's financial situation public, either. An adult is, or should be, strong enough to be able to compartmentalize it while the competition is going on and deal with it afterwards, but that's asking a lot of a 16 year old, especially one who's just nailed the biggest accomplishment of her life.

People are neither going to remember the reason why Gabby didn't medal after AA, or even that she didn't medal after AA. They'll remember her for winning AA and for being both a great gymnast and absolutely adorable.

And it would have been very hard for Gabby to medal in floor exercise because she didn't compete in floor exercise. That's the best reason of all.

But none of that has to do with the fact that Aly did win gold in the floor exercise, after dramatically getting bronze in balance beam. The drama makes a bronze much more exciting and, for a moment or two, memorable. And floor exercise is the last of the gymnastics events, which completes a story arc quite nicely.

[PRlady]

I'd recruit Aly tomorrow as a spokesperson for my organization, she's a big ethnic heroine in her own community, too. And she's well-spoken and mature.

Gabby, OTOH, is a natural sparkler. From a marketing standpoint, if I were a cool clothing company marketing to teenagers (with a petite department!) I would grab her before she got off the plane in the US. Likewise a big makeup company with a significant product line for African-American women, like MAC or Maybelline. Or a fitness company....

The possibilities are huge.

[Aceon6]

I'd recruit Aly tomorrow ...And she's well-spoken and mature.

Gabby, OTOH, is a natural sparkler.

The possibilities are huge.

There will be plenty to go around as they play in totally different markets. Were it Jordyn/Aly, they might be competing for the same things, but it didn't shake out that way.