Cars Of The Sports Stars

Professional sports generated $213 billion last year, according to Street & Smith's Sports Group. Sports advertising alone is a $27 billion industry, media broadcast rights bring in an additional $7 billion, and spectators spend more than $26 billion each year on tickets, concessions and parking.

Still, there's a powerful emotional element as well, one that extends from the on-the-field action all the way to the vehicles parked in the athletes' driveways.

"Sports is not only the physical games themselves and people watching those games, but it's also all of the Monday-morning quarterbacking, the conversations through the week," says Audi CMO Scott Keogh (Audi just became the official sponsor of the New York Yankees). "Everyone can identify with it, whether they play a marginal amount of sports or whether their father played sports. That cultural thing resonates with cars as well."

In other words, cars help athletes establish an image with fans, potential sponsors and teammates. One of the first things Atlanta Braves pitcher Kenshin Kawakami did when he moved from Japan was buy a black Maserati Grand Turismo S. He already owned a Lamborghini Murcielago, but he needed something more understated for driving in the U.S. The Maserati costs $135,000; the Lambo costs $219,000 more.

"My favorite thing about the car is how it looks, how it's really luxurious but not too flashy," Kawakami says. "It's got a really refined, elegant look."

Rising Star, Same Car Tom Brady, on the other hand, probably wouldn't make such a change. He drives a $51, 400 Audi S5, which has an athletically smooth styling that echoes the quarterback's agile prowess on the field.

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Sure, he also drives a rare $114,200 R8, which matches his celebrity status as the MVP of two Super Bowls (winner of three) and husband of Gisele Bündchen, the highest-paid model in the world. But even though Brady currently has an endorsement deal with the German automaker, he owned Audi vehicles long before Audi approached him. It's a match made in heaven, Keogh says.

"He's very successful, he's very passionate," he says. "Most importantly, from a driving image, he's just not your central casting star and all the negative baggage that sort of comes along with that."

Wie, on the other hand, doesn't have a partnership with an automaker; she drives the Benz and Beemer because she loves them. For those automakers--and Wie's fans--that might be worth more than a formal endorsement anyway.

In Depth: Cars Of The Sports Stars

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