Posted on 02/03/2015 10:59:59 AM PST by shove_it
Professional golf caddies have filed a class-action, anti-trust lawsuit against the PGA Tour alleging improper use of the caddies' "likenesses and images."
The suit -- similar to the landmark O'Bannon vs. NCAA action -- seeks access to what it says is a revenue stream worth $50 million annually from caddies wearing of traditional "bibs" adorned with sponsors logos. The caddies are required to display those sponsors' logos controlled by the Tour that derives revenue from them.
The suit was filed Tuesday in the same United States Northern District Court of California that was home to the O'Bannon class-action suit vs. the NCAA involving college athletes.
The caddies' suit states that the tour denied them to profit from sponsors' logos worn on bibs that are required by PGA without compensation. The plaintiffs -- 82 current caddies from 19 US States and one Canadian province -- say the sponsorship value of the bibs is worth $50 million.
"Caddies receive none of that revenue," the suit states.
The suit seeks unspecified actual damages and royalties attributable to the Tour's use of the caddies' "likeness and images in commercial activities."
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at cbssports.com ...
What a novel idea!
I think I’ll sue Apple for carrying around an IPAD, with their logo on it - advertising for them, and I should be entitled to a share of Apple revenue.
i carried golf clubs for years working through high school and college (an loved it)...this was at the Westchester Country Club which had a PGA tour event once a year. They would give us $100 to wear certain visors, etc for advertisement purposes during the event...
personally i’m glad to see them take action to bring in a few $$$....
and what if one day you saw and Apple ad on a bus or in a mag which had your likeness and image in it??
would you say, “hey- that’s great!!” or would you wonder why you weren’t paid for being in the ad???
Does Apple MAKE you carry it? Then your comparison is silly. PGA tour caddies HAVE TO wear the ads, and get no compensation for it. Billboard owners get paid, when you make people be a billboard they too should get paid.
Dam straight! Especially if you have to dress-up like a garbage truck.
My read of the article is that they are complaining about walking around with a logo on them. If I read it wrong, and it has a picture of them, that might be more debatable.
You see race car drivers wearing logos, PGA players wearing logos, corporate logos behind professional team pressers. All are compensated by the corporations. Caddies are not. Seems they should get something. Right now, their compensation is only what they get from the player.
Apple does not require you to own an iPad. Displaying their logo is not part of a contractual agreement you have entered into with them.
The player pays the caddy for caddying, knowing the course, advising on clubs and shots. Nobody pays the caddies to be a billboard. They’re walking around with the bibs the PGA makes them wear, and gets money for them wearing, occasionally winding up in the TV shot and the network is getting paid for that, but nobody pays the caddy for that. It’s not debatable, the PGA are being cheap punks for not paying them. At least a couple of bucks to at least acknowledge that the caddies are providing a service to the tour.
They get paid by the player to caddie. They do not get payed by the PGA to be a human billboard, which they are required to do.
" Don't they get paid to be a caddie? That is compensation."
Caddies get paid for the partnership role they play in supporting their players. They are independent contractors who get a percentage of their player's winnings.
A caddy working for a player who misses the cut goes home empty handed. Advertising for an outside agency without compensation is an entirely different matter.
Probably the PGA Tour should pay the caddies nominally for being billboards. However, those billboards satisfy the sponsors, who underwrite the prize money. The prize money for the average PGA Tour event is bigger than ever, and that benefits the caddies, who take a flat percentage of their player’s prize money. Seeing the big picture might make some caddies want to where more than one logo on their bib.
They should only be forced to do what they signed on when working for the player then. If the contract says wear XYZ, then they should negotiate it out, or wear XYZ. Since I’m not hearing that displaying XYZ is part of any contract with a player, they should tell the PGA to pound sand, and wear whatever pleases them.
Must stink to be Tiger's caddy these days.
If the caddies don’t like the working conditions, let them go find another job.
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