I spoke today to a Roman friend, someone very well connected in Italian political, media and business circles. Here’s what he said regarding the fallout from the Tiger scandal.
In Italy they now love much more Tiger. He’s more famous now than he ever was before. Every day it was front page for like two weeks. People, they don’t care about golf, now they’re talking about Tiger. And Italians, they don’t care about the women–so what? But nobody in Italy realized how much money Tiger makes! The top footballer in Italy, he makes five million or ten million–not so impressive. But Tiger, he’s making more than 100 million. This is impressive to Italian people! I think when Tiger starts playing again, sponsors in Europe, they will pay him more.