I'll admit at the outset that I haven't been impressed by the way Prodigy has positioned or marketed itself from the beginning: it's like they can't keep from sharting all over themselves, and this lawsuit, IMO, is another example. (FWIW, my ambivalence regarding Prodigy hasn't kept me from trying their discs: I've been bagging the D3 and D4 since summer of 2014 and the PA4 since Spring 2015, and nothing I've tried in the meantime has come close to replacing any of them.)
I have to question the business acumen of whomever is advising Prodigy in this matter. Given that Gannon was under contract for 2023, I would think that they would have been better served to hold their fire until he actually signed with new sponsor then sue the sponsor for tortious interference, because the sports-watching public in general understand the concept of tampering, and, for the most part, accept that tampering is a no-no. At the very least, that would have avoided the optics of "Big bad Prodigy beating up on a 17 year old kid." Whatever the merits of their claim, even if Prodigy wins the current suit (which, if their point-by-point rebuttal to GB's claims in their filing is upheld, is more likely than not), it's difficult to envision a scenario in which this doesn't end badly for them.
Regardless of whether the phrase "without a high profile PGDA athlete under contract" was meant to be read narrowly or broadly, the perception is the reality, and the perception among the wider public, who aren't reading or hearing the phrase strictly in the context of a legal pleading, was always going to be that they don't consider the other team members, including KJ and IR, "high profile PDGA athletes." That can't help but be perceived as "disrespecting" those team members and is likely to be something other companies bring up, if only in passing, when their contacts are up for renewal.
Additionally, the lawsuit puts team members in an awkward position. Does anyone (other than, perhaps, the suits at Prodigy) honestly believe that the lawsuit isn't going to be a story—if not the top story—at every tour stop and that (dozens, if not hundreds, of) people aren't going to bring it up and ask team members for their take on it at every event and promotional event throughout the season? How many times and how many different ways can you say, "No comment" before it becomes a major distraction?
Third, unless Prodigy was set to launch a major marketing campaign featuring GB, throwing out the figure of $1.5 million in potentially lost revenue if Gannon bails has the strong potential to sow doubt in the minds of the likes of KJ and IR (not just in terms of the amount of they receive in royalty payments, but the number of "their" discs sold vs. the number of "GB's" discs that would need to be sold to reach $1.5 million in gross revenue and what that number implies in terms of Prodigy's marketing efforts on behalf of GB vs. KJ, IR, and the other top tier team members) and where they stand in Prodigy's pecking order: if you're KJ, for example, who's practically been the face of Prodigy* and a consummate ambassador for the past 3-4 year, would you be OK with playing a distant second fiddle in terms of marketing to a newbie who's got a grand total of 1 year on the Pro Tour under his belt?
* Yes Chris ****erson is arguably Prodigy's most successful player over that time frame, but I would wager that if you ask most people what the first thing they think of when they hear "Kevin Jones" they would say "Prodigy," whereas if you ask what they think of when they hear "Chris ****erson," they would say "Robochicken" or "C****."
And have they learn nothing from or forgotten about the fiasco that was the 2016 Paige Pierce tour. Do they really want to go through a season-long repeat of that cluster ****?
Can Prodigy recover from this latest (self-inflicted) PR disaster? Perhaps; but you can be sure that players will be watching the proceedings closely, and if the lawsuit undermines the trust of their current and prospective team members, I suspect it will be ****ably hard to do so.
All that said, GB doesn't exactly come off as blameless in this kerfuffle, either (but that's perhaps a topic for another post in a different thread). When all is said and done, I suspect my attitude is going to be, "A plague on both your houses."
