5 replies to this topic

[TheDestroyer]

Maxim Magazine did some research to compare the highest paid sports figures.

I guess the slant on this short article was to show that American sports aren't the only show in town... Americans (a population which I belong to) tend to think everything in the USA is the best in the World, that we are the best, etc...

Well, the highest paid athlete wasn't even close to being an American - it was none other than our good old Michael Schumacher.

Schumi topped their chart at $42 million USD, and that's before endorsements.

Now if I can only figure out how to get him to adopt me

[Damop]

I think Tiger Woods surpasses Schumi when endorsements are considered.

[Dan_G]

Originally posted by Damop
I think Tiger Woods surpasses Schumi when endorsements are considered.

Actually, Micheal beats out Tiger when endorsements are considered. IMG represents both Micheal Schumacher and Tiger Woods (among a few thousand other athletes), and have a small hand to play in this game. When Tiger burst onto the golf scene and recieved that huge endorsement deal from Nike, IMG wanted to market Tiger as the highest paid athlete in the world that year. They reports to the press that Tiger was worth $50 million USD (including endorsements), and Micheal Schumacher was their second highest paid athlete at $49 million USD. Well, the actual truth is that Micheal actually made significantly more money than Tiger that year, and continues to do so. IMG purposely downplayed Schumacher's earnings in order to promote Tiger. Micheal Schumacher IS actually the highest paid athlete in the world when considering salary and endorsements. Their endorsement deals are pretty close to being equal, but the fact that Micheal's salary is considerably higher than Tiger's purse winnings from tournaments, is what makes Micheal the higher paid athlete.

Just so you dont think Im pulling this out of my butt, I used to work in the sports management industry until a few months ago, and still have many friends in the sports management and athlete finance business. It is pretty common knowledge in the sports business that companies will fudge some earnings numbers to promote one athlete over another.

[teck]

What happened to the boxers? I always thought they got paid the most? Considering the actual amount of time they spend in actual competition , they must be the most highly paid. F1 drivers too, which really puts golf in the pale. Imgaine how many hours of competition walking Tiger does ina year?

Dan, do you have a breakdown of maybe the top 10? I'm quite curious.

[teck]

On the idea of Tiger's earnings, I was wondering if anyone knows how many exhibition tournaments (each one about 3 days I think) he plays a year. I know his standard appearance fee for such tournaments is US$1.5m, so it would be one portion of his annual salary quite calculable.

[Dan_G]

teck,

I dont have the entire breakdown of exactly who the top 10 highest paid are, but the list is mostly baseball and basketball players in the States. Tiger and Micheal are the top, Micheal Jordan is still right up there, and the rest are mostly all baseball or basketball players. Anna Kournikova is the highest paid female athlete, and I believe she slipped in to the top 10 in the last year or so (almost all of her money is endorsement and publicity, she gets very little from tournaments). I dont think there are any boxers in the top 10, but thats only because they dont get much in endorsement money. Boxers are one of the few groups of athletes who make very little in endorsement dollars, they get almost all of their money from fights purses. That's why they dont get up into the top 10.