Sports
How Serena Williams’s First Endorsement deal transformed her
How Serena Williams’s First Endorsement deal transformed her
In 1997, around 5:30 p.m., Bertone arrived at Milchan’s office, then located on the lot of Warner Bros. Studios. The meeting had lasted since midday.
“Sitting in the office is Serena Williams,” he recalled. “I don’t think she was even 16 yet.”
Williams, who turns 40 this week, would go on to endorse Puma into her early 20s, wearing custom-designed outfits that made her into a revolutionary of tennis fashion. But her ongoing 18-year partnership with Nike, the brand she’d join in 2003, has overshadowed the oft-forgotten first endorsement deal of her career. It all began, for Williams, with an offer from Puma, negotiated in this meeting.
Next to her in the room sat Richard Williams, who moved his family from Saginaw, Michigan, to Compton, California, in 1983. He taught the game of tennis on the city’s public courts to his daughters, Venus and Serena, who are 15 months apart.
Milchan had met his ultimate match in Richard Williams. The self-proclaimed “James Bond” (who once said that he covertly negotiated arms deals for the Israeli government in the 1960s) took serve against “King Richard,” the hands-on father who leveraged his elder daughter, Venus, an eight-figure endorsement deal with Reebok in 1995. That same year, Williams turned pro at 14, joining her sister on the WTA tour.
“Arnon recognized Serena and Venus’ ability to change the sport of tennis,” Bertone said. “Puma wasn’t in tennis then. But Arnon went from 0 to 100 … like, ‘We’re totally getting back into tennis with Serena.’ ”
Technically, Milchan didn’t have the power to discuss financial terms on Puma’s behalf. And Bertone didn’t have the authority to offer a multiyear contract to an athlete. So they called Puma CEO Jochen Zeitz in Germany. Zeitz woke up in the middle of the night to sign off on the deal.
Back in the corner of the LA office, Richard Williams periodically called his wife Oracene on the room’s landline to provide updates. “I was convinced he wasn’t even talking to her,” Bertone noted. “That he was just buying time, drawing things out to see where we’d end up.”
At one point, as detailed in her 2009 autobiography, On The Line, Williams placed her head down on the conference table and dozed off. Negotiations went past midnight, lasting more than 12 hours. The meeting ultimately ended with a multimillion-dollar commitment from Zeitz and Puma, and a verbal agreement from Richard and Serena Williams.
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Great rumor about Schumacher – but bad memories are already coming back
The dream is still alive – but the glimmer of hope is shrinking more and more! Mick Schumacher actually wanted to use the wild driver market to slip back into Formula 1. However, some prominent options are already off the table.
The latest rumor about the son of record world champion Michael Schumacher is all the more surprising. He is very familiar with this Formula 1 racing team. But the current situation brings back bad memories.
Formula 1: No Audi, no Mercedes
After the departure of Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes would have been the dream solution for Schumacher. He has been a test driver for the Silver Arrows for over a year and receives praise from all sides. Here he could finally have presented himself in a competitive car. However, there are increasing signs that his name is not on team boss Toto Wolff’s list of possible candidates. Especially since he’s already digging Max Verstappen ( find out more here ).
+++ Next Red Bull shocker? Helmut Marko spills the beans +++
Audi’s hopes also recently received a severe setback. The German carmaker chose Nico Hülkenberg as the face of its own campaign. In addition, Carlos Sainz, who has to leave Ferrari, will probably follow. Schumacher couldn’t compete with the Spaniard’s charisma.
Place on the chaos team?
So what options remain in Formula 1? According to the “F1 Insider” portal, Alpine could suddenly become an issue. Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly are actually set here. Because things aren’t going well this season, the former in particular is aiming for a change after the season.
The connection to Schumacher is definitely there, as he has been driving for the Alpine endurance team since this year. So far he has been able to impress with fast lap times. Is this his ticket back to the premier class?
Formula 1: Alpine on the brink
Only: How much would it bring him? During his first F1 phase, Schumacher sat in a Haas with no chance and in which it was impossible to shine. Something similar is currently looming at Alpine. Instead of fighting for podiums, the car is a cucumber and hasn’t scored a single point yet. A fate that is shared with Williams and Sauber – but that was also to be expected with them.
There is also a lot of background noise surrounding layoffs and resignations. Mick Schumacher probably wouldn’t hesitate if he were offered a return to Formula 1. But Alpine’s current state bodes ill for its chances of success.
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After Hamilton’s commitment: Ferrari changes name
The commitment of Lewis Hamilton as a driver pays off twice for Ferrari. The Italian racing team has a new title sponsor and is changing its name.
Munich – Lewis Hamilton’s Formula 1 move from Mercedes to Ferrari for the coming season caused a huge stir . With the seven-time world champion, the Scuderia wants to launch the major attack on Red Bull and Max Verstappen in 2025, which currently seems unassailable.
And the Hamilton deal pays off twice for Ferrari: On the one hand, the Italian racing team gains what is probably the biggest name among active drivers. On the other hand, the name Hamilton attracts major sponsors. One of them will now become the main and title sponsor. This means: Ferarri is even changing its name.
Ferrari completes deal with new title sponsor
As the racing team announced on Wednesday, the US technology company Hewlett-Packard (HP) will be the new title sponsor. From now on, the two current drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr., whom Hamilton will replace in the coming season, will no longer be racing for “Scuderia Ferrari” but for “Scuderia Ferrari HP”.
“Our founder passed on to us his constant desire for progress. This results in our pursuit of innovation on the road and on the racetrack. In HP we have found the same values, which makes the company an ideal partner. We look forward to starting our collaboration and facing new opportunities and challenges together,” Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna is quoted as saying in a press release.
HP deal brings Ferrari new look
The sponsorship deal will also change the look of the cars and racing suits. For the first time, the HP logo will appear on the cars of Leclerc and Sainz Jr. at the Grand Prix in Miami on May 5th. be visible. However, the exact appearance of the cars is not yet known.
Denny Hamlin Takes a Shot at Kyle Larson as the HMS Driver Brings Up Petty Issues
After the Wurth 400 Race, Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch expressed their displeasure in their respective post-race interviews at Dover, blaming their loss primarily on the aero blocking associated with the next-gen cars. Where Larson is listed as the 5-1 favorite to win at Dover, for Busch, it was his second career Dover pole. After the race, Busch emphasized how previous models at least allowed some room to maneuver for passes, a flexibility that seems absent in the next-gen cars.
Larson, expanding on this, pointed out that aero blocking is particularly significant at the front of the pack. He noted that drivers leading the race could easily use their in-car cameras to keep tabs on challengers behind them and block effectively. #5 suggested that removing these cameras could potentially alleviate the problem.
However, Denny Hamlin, the Dover winner, who once again “beat your favorite driver” doesn’t see eye to eye with this viewpoint. He actually downplayed the impact of in-car cameras, considering their removal a minor tweak rather than a significant solution to the overarching issues with next-generation cars.
Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson are at loggerheads with each other
#5 Hendrick Motorsports driver recently floated the idea that NASCAR should ditch the rear-view cameras to make air-blocking tougher. He repeatedly described how “easy” it is to block using these cameras, explaining, “It’s really hard to pass the lead car. […] Honestly, if they took the cameras out of the car, that’s probably one of the little things that could fix it. It’s hard to see out of the rearview mirrors, but the cameras are so easy. I would be for it if they took the cameras out. I don’t know if he ;[Hamlin] runs the camera, he probably does and it’s really easy.”
However, Denny Hamlin doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Kyle Larson. In his post-race comments, the JGR driver mentioned he rarely used the camera at Dover, noting, “Yeah, I mean, I use it at times. I didn’t use it much today simply because Dover is just a track where things happen so fast. I feel like personally if I take my eyes off the road for a second, I take it to the camera, I’ll miss my line kind of rely more on the spotter to defend than I do the actual camera just simply because I don’t think I’m good enough to drive and look backwards.”
Denny Hamlin wasn’t buying the camera removal idea as a fix for aero blocking. He flat-out said it wouldn’t make a difference. “No, it wouldn’t change anything because the spotters would tell you where to drive,” he explained. He said that he would rather see changes to the car, tires, or something more substantial. According to him, the current cars just can’t stand being in traffic or trailing another car, which is why they perform best on wider tracks where the following driver has room to maneuver. It’s all a strategic game.
But besides these camera and aero-blocking discussions, there’s something else worth celebrating for Denny Hamlin. With his latest win at Dover, Denny Hamlin has now matched a legendary driver in the record books.
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