A Word from the Sponsors

The long-haired young man in blue jeans was due in Paris in a few hours. Standing in Rome's Fiumicino Airport, he looked at his Air France boarding pass and realized he had been seated in the coach section. He was thus unable to be with a companion who was ticketed in first class. "I can't upgrade this," he said, "I don't have enough money with me."

It seemed an unlikely predicament for Bjorn Borg, the world's wealthiest tennis player, but Borg rarely carries much cash with him. He does not have to. A small army of accountants, financial advisers, marketing experts and other support troops are employed to manage his money, his personal needs and his vastly lucrative image. Borg has not quite reached the dizzying heights of Arnold Palmer, the top earner in all of sport, who has made roughly $60 million in his career from golf and business ventures. "But he's getting closer," says Mark McCormack, founder and president of Cleveland-based International Management Group, which choreographs the schedules and handles the financial affairs of more than 400 athletes, including both Palmer and Borg. Says McCormack: "I have never come across an athlete who at Borg's age has accomplished what he has and whose prospects for the future are as bright."

Under IMG's careful programming, Borg will earn about $2 million this year just playing tennis. He will appear in some 30 exhibition matches that, at $30,000 to $60,000 a day depending on how far he has to travel, will bring him $1 million or so. Then there are the tournaments. Last year Borg entered fifeteen, defaulted two times, won ten and took home $1,008,742 in winnings. This year his schedule calls for twelve tournaments, and barring injury, there is no reason to think he cannot do as well.

Borg will also make an additional $3 million or more this year that does not involve lifting a racquet. He has lent his name to almost 60 products. Among them: tennis shoes, training devices, racquet-stringing machines, instructional video and audio cassettes, balls, ball machines and headbands. Other firms line Borg's pockets for promoting breakfast cereal, bread, soft drinks, leisure shoes and clothes, sunglasses, tanning lotion, key rings, pencils, erasers, posters, calendars, confections (a Borg candy bar is sold in Europe), blue jeans, jewelry, glucose tablets, men's cologne, liquor (in Brazil) and a Bjorn Borg doll. One year he posed with two Swedish sewing machines for a company that wanted to salute "three Swedish champions." This fall a Borg-authored tennis column will begin appearing in British newspapers. Next month, for $125,000 plus royalties, a French picture agency will be permitted to photograph Borg's wedding. Says Bob Kain, Borg's account supervisor at IMG: "We told Bjorn that we could have tons of photographers around, with everybody trying to get involved, or we can limit it to one and make him some more money." Borg, who has had his fill of paparazzi, opted for both exclusivity and peace.

Some of Borg's endorsements bring more than cash.

Along with the reported $60,000 Scandinavia's SAS Airlines paid him last year for wearing their logo on his sleeve, came free first-class air passage on SAS for him and discount fares for his parents. Donnay racquets of Belgium, which is paying him around $600,000 a year plus a commission on each Borg model racquet sold, also must provide the star with the 30 or so $75 racquets he takes with him to tournaments. In Australia, he endorses Bancroft racquets for another $90,000 or so a year and all the racquets he can break. Fila, an Italian tenniswear firm, gives him approximately $500,000 a year and the shirtts on his back. VS Strings antes up more than $25,000 a year and lots of gut to keep Borg's tension high. In his togs, Borg is virtually a walking billboard.

And his price keeps going up. According to Kain, who recently negotiated Borg's new five-year contracts with Fila and Donnay, "they are the biggest deals in the history of tennis." The current going rate for a one-year print campaign using Borg's name and picture, including one day of his time to shoot the ad, is $50,000. But IMG generally insists on a minimum two-year deal with a 15% fee increase the second year. Budget-minded advertisers willing to settle for less than No. 1 one can hire Vitas Gerulaitis for a modest $30,000 annualy, Skier Jean-Claude Killy for $25,000, Golfer Ben Crenshaw for $20,000 or twelfth-ranked tennis player Peter Fleming for $15,000. But Borg is the one they want.

Says Kain, "We could fill up every day of the year so easily."

Why do firms pay so much for a Borg endorsement? Fila's sales climbed from $25 million to $53 million during the last three years of Borg's first contract. Donnay's racquet sales quadrupled in its first five years with Borg. Didier Ailloud, deputy sales director of the French firm that makes VS strings, believes that as much as 15% of new customers come his way after being swayed by the Swede. Says Ailloud: "I am convinced that the identification of Bjorn with our product is of inestimable importance."

How much, then, is Borg worth?

Because of all the perks, his expenses on the tour--$20,000 to $25,000 annually--are lower than most top players.

And by making his home in tax-free Monaco, Borg avoids the 85% bite he would feel in Sweden. A Swedish newspaper last year calculated his net worth at $7.25 million. That is surely low; Borg's investments, which IMG also manages, have appreciated at well beyond the inflation rate.

Borg bought gold at $200 per oz. a few years ago and sold it at $600. He owns a home on the French Riviera and part of an island off Sweden. He has diamond interests, a wide range of bonds and other securities, apartment and office buildings in the U.S., a tennis shop in Monte Carlo managed by bis parents. He is also looking for a home in Florida, where he feels he may some day want to retire.

For its services, IMG charges Borg from 10% to 20% of his tennis prize money and between 20% and 30% of his endorsement income. To protect those revenues in the event of death or disablement, IMG has taken out a $10 million insurance policy on Borg, payable to IMG. What are the chances of his being hurt? He has rarely in his career sustained a serious injury, and despite the stress that experts say Borg's topspin places on his arm, his superb physical shape has so far kept the tennis machine functioning smoothly. Says veteran Tennis Coach Vic Braden: "The only way he's going to hurt his arm is carrying his wallet."

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