Gatorade Tiger Being Discontinued

Gatorade is discontinuing its "Tiger Focus" line, more commonly referred to as "Gatorade Tiger" (or "Tigerade" for short). But the move, Gatorade says, has nothing to do with Tiger Woods' current driving/cheating problems.

Should we believe them? Yes, it turns out. The Chicago Sun-Times Kyle Koster points out that "industry trade publication Beverage Digest reported that the line would be discontinued Nov. 25, two days before Woods' fateful wreck."

So not only had Gatorade made the decision to discontinue Gatorade Tiger prior to the start of Woods' recent troubles, but that decision had even been publicly reported prior to Tiger's woes.

Still, the timing is rotten. One wonders what kind of discussions are going on in the corporate boardrooms of Tiger's other sponsors. So far, most of Woods' sponsors have publicly expressed support for him, and none has given any indication of dumping Woods.

Gatorade, by the way, said it is dumping the Gatorade Tiger line in order to "make room for our planned series of innovative products in 2010." We can surmise the line wasn't producing great sales numbers, however, or this decision most likely wouldn't have been made (unless the beverage maker has something else with Tiger in the works).