Rory McIlroy's Court Battle with Horizon Sports

[Wally Fairway]

Maybe there's a lawyer/agent here who can give us the layman's version.

I am a total ignoramus when it comes to pro sports contracts but don't agents get like 5% of endorsement deals? Or is it less? That's 10m based on 200m Nike endorsement alone. How did Horizon have enough leverage to get 30m from McIlroy? I understand the war of attrition aspect and from my pov, looks like it's worth it to settle, a possible win at the Masters is worth it, but this whole incident is a mystery to me, why he kept switching agents.

I'm not a lawyer, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express - and I am certain that the contract with the agent would have covered future earnings as well, so that settlement discussion would have included not only past endorsements, appearance fees, etc but also future deals.

Rory made a wise decision to settle this and move forward, but it does seem like a steep amount if that reported settlement is accurate.

Still cheaper than getting a divorce, so there is that going for him.

I think young Mr. McIlroy will be okay financially, and I am certain he will keep a closer eye on it from this point forward.

[billchao]

No idea about the financial advice, but his advocate is one of Ireland's top barristers. He'll have settled for the reasons anyone sane settles a case - the costs and risks of protracted litigation balanced against the likelihood of achieving a better outcome if the case actually goes to court. Besides which, this was starting to get murky. Allegations of deliberate data wiping, etc - I imagine his client was in for a tough time if called to give evidence.

I agree completely about settling the case. What I meant was, who is giving him advice about the decisions he makes? The Oakley lawsuit happened because he didn't give them the chance to offer a contract before he switched to Nike, or something like that. If that was a clause it his previous contract, it's an egregious error on his part. This whole thing with Horizon seems like something similar. Remember, he sued them first and they countersued. Apparently, they had a case. So who is telling him it's ok to do these things without first considering the ramifications?

[joekelly]

Many comments i read in UK newspapers strongly suggested Rory had very little chance to win this suit. He was sober when he signed the contract and he was 'of age' at the time. Quite likely Rory settled in secret coz he wanted to avoid a public showing of his poor decisions.

[turtleback]

Originally Posted by ScouseJohnny

No idea about the financial advice, but his advocate is one of Ireland's top barristers. He'll have settled for the reasons anyone sane settles a case - the costs and risks of protracted litigation balanced against the likelihood of achieving a better outcome if the case actually goes to court. Besides which, this was starting to get murky. Allegations of deliberate data wiping, etc - I imagine his client was in for a tough time if called to give evidence.

One of the big reasons cases like this get settled in the US, as I understand it, is the threat of going through the discovery process, wherein your opponent gets to paw through your dirty underwear drawer.

[Shorty]

Many comments i read in UK newspapers strongly suggested Rory had very little chance to win this suit. He was sober when he signed the contract and he was 'of age' at the time. Quite likely Rory settled in secret coz he wanted to avoid a public showing of his poor decisions.

Correct.

Just because McDowell's terms were better than McIlroy's doesn't mean he was taken advantage of.

It's not as if a 22 year old multi millionaire is a child.

You would be pretty annoyed if a client signed a contract and then decided later that he could have done better had he known certain things about other clients and decided to stop paying you.

$30 million is nothing to a person who will most likely be a billionaire within 10 years. It's about principle and McIlroy's immaturity was shown not by signing the contract but by pursuing this case. He never had a chance of winning.