More Videos
- NBA Development Team Ties Ticket Sales To Dow 10,000
- Round 5 Gets Grip on Mixed Martial Arts Figurine Biz
- Can Cyclife USA Ride "Healthy Green" Into American Cities?
- Ronnie Lott Helping Players Give Back
- What A Super Bowl Can Do For New Orleans
- How Much For A BCS Playoff?
- Athletes: Forget The Branding, Become An Identity Instead
- Lexus Going Ahead On Sports Sponsorships: Buick Cuts Back
- Boston Red Sox Fan Should Take Her Promotion Complaint Home
- Seeing the (Wake) Forest Through the (Cardinal) Trees
- Out with Cox, in with Uptick Rule
- Pops & Drops: Hewlett-Packard, JP Morgan & Air Wagoner
- Mad Money Green Week: Owens Corning
- Fast & Furious: It's All About Soup
- Web Extra: The Trade on Walmart and RIMM
- Chartology: Grossly Oversold and Favoring the Upside
- The "Armageddon" Gameplan
- What's Next for Citigroup?
- What to Expect From a Geithner-led Treasury
- Citigroup Update: Reports Emerge Of Possible Plan
- Saudi Arabia Forced To Slash Interest Cuts By Crisis
- Asia-Pacific Summit Continues Drumbeat Of Economic Woes
- Global Markets Want Catalysts For Buying This Week
- Economic Team Obama: Will It Help Settle Markets?
- American, Asian Leaders Push Free Trade To End Crisis
- Citigroup Update: Reports Emerge Of Possible Plan
- Soros: More Money Needed For U.S. Bailout
- HP Earnings: How Much Will "Hurt" From Economy?
Text Size 
 |
Rob Griffith / AP Michael Phelps. |
(Transcript of interview follows:)
Darren: What's your phone like, your BlackBerry?
Carlisle: My biggest worry everyday is finding myself near enough to an electric outlet that this plug takes, so I can keep the thing charged. It has been crazy.
Darren: You made a comment to The Wall Street Journal that you are getting 50 pitches a day.
Carlisle: Yeah, it just increased exponentially. I've got this local Chinese cellphone in one hand and BlackBerry in the other, and it's ringing. Both of them are ringing at the same time. It has been a pretty chaotic and wild ride so far.
Darren: Michael has already done a book previously. We're hearing things about another book. What can you tell us?
Carlisle: Well, Michael's done two books already and shortly after he won his eighth gold medal, the inquiries started to come in for a third book, which was somewhat of a surprise given that he already has two.
The Business of Sports: |
But what was really surprising was the level of interest and the number of publishers and really the value to the deal, so that was very encouraging.
But perhaps more interesting is the fact that off of the periphery of Michael, there's interest in books with his coach Bob Bowman, sort of a business literature concept, motivational planning, that sort of thing, and his mom Debbie for parenting. So you know those are deals that you don't generally anticipate in the Olympic space.
Darren: And you're managing her career now, too, apparently because she got an endorsement deal with Johnson's. Is there something in that? Wilma McNabb got some endorsement deals when Donovan was hot. Is there something in Debbie now?
Carlisle: Debbie has sort of taken, you know, sort of the hearts of America in terms of parenting and mom of the year, so she's doing some work with Johnson's [Johnson & Johnson's] [JNJ
Loading...
()
] Baby in New York as we speak....
Darren: She's in New York right now?
Carlisle: She's in New York as we speak, doing some stuff with Johnson's Baby, and she's also does some stuff with ADHD moms and is the spokesperson for that, given Michael's experience with ADHD. Actually her favorite clothing brand has always been Chico's [CHS
Loading...
()
] ever since I've known her, and sure enough, Chico's has expressed interest, so you know, it's all new territory here.
Darren: We asked Michael if there's an endorsement deal that you don't have that you'd like to have, he said the fast-food category. The Chicago Sun Times heard my comment and called McDonald's and we find out that McDonald's has done something with him. What's the latest with that?
Carlisle: Michael has done some work with McDonald's [MCD
Loading...
()
], really working with the kids and the programs that they have. But if there's one deal, he's always said it'd be McDonald's, and I think in part because of the depth of their relationship with the Olympic space. It's also about what they did with Jordan, and he's sort of been Michael's hero forever.
The truth of the matter is you can't stop the guy from eating the food and so its one of these natural fits, so we'll see what happens.
Darren: EBay [EBAY
Loading...
()
] is going nuts, collectibles-wise. Tell me about merchandising, can we see Michael Phelps picture on a shirt? What are your plans in that category?
Carlisle: We're going to really explore the merchandising side of the business globally, by sort of taking his name and image alone at times, putting them on merchandise, shirts, things of that nature, posters, and there has already been a lot of demand for that sort of thing.
But I think it's going to be interesting to see globally, whether that's going to take on, because in the Olympic space, you don't see a lot of that.
Questions? Comments?
Del.icio.us
Digg It
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes