Athletes Earnings

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The sport with the top paid athlete varies when there is one superstar who dominates. It was Michael Jordan in the late 90's, Michael Schumacher (Formula 1 race driver) in 2000-2002 and Tiger woods since 2003.
Although Golf, Soccer and Auto Racing have the top superstars, basketball has more athletes in the top 20 (5) than golf (4) or soccer and auto racing (3).

Annual Earnings Including endorsements 2007-08
Note: Earnings from endorsements are only estimates.
Figures are from a variety of sources and don't necessairly cover exactly the same time periods.

Sport Athelete Erngs
$M Sal/
win Endrs-
mnts₄ Rank ¹

Erng Celb

Golf Tiger Woods $128 $23 $105 1 1

Phil Mickelson 62 9 53 2 6

Vijay Singh (2007) 32 17

Earnie Els (2007) 30 20

Arnold Palmer (2006) 27 26

Michelle Wie (2007) 3 19 0 19 34

Annika Sorenstam 19 35 19

Lorena Ochoa 10 40 18

Soccer David Beckham - LA Galaxy 48 3 2

Ronaldinho - FC Barcelona 38 9 20

Lionel Messi - FC Barcelona 36 10

Cristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United 30 21

Auto Racing ² Kimi Räikkönen - F1 46 4 9

Fernando Alonso - F1 35 11 12

Valentino Rossi - Motorcycle 35 12

Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Nascar 27 5 22 27 13

Jeff Gordon - Nascar 26 11 15 28 10

Basketball Michael Jordan - retired 42 42 6 4

LeBron James - Cleveland Cavaliers 40 12 28 7 3

Kobe Bryant - LA Lakers 35 19 16 13 5

Shaquille O'Neal - Phoenix Suns 35 20 15 14 11

Yao Ming - Houston Rockets 32 18

Kevin Garnett - Boston Celtics 31 22 9 19 14

Baseball Alex Rodriguez - Yankees 35 29 6 15 8

Derek Jeter - Yankees 30 22 8 22

Ichiro Suzuki - Seattle Mariners 28 25

Manny Ramirez - Dogers 23 20 3 30

Johan Santana - Mets 21 32

Hideki Matsui - Yankees 19 36

Football Peyton Manning - Indianapolis Colts 30 17 13 23

Ben Roethlisberger - Pittsburgh Steelers 25 23 2 29

JaMarcus Russell - Oakland Raiders 21 20 1 33

Tom Brady - New England Patriots 18 8 10 36

Eli Manning - New York Giants 15 8 7 38

Tennis Roger Federer 35 9 26 16 7

Maria Sharapova 22 2 20 31 15

Rafael Nadal 18 37

Serena Williams 14 39 16

Justine Henin 12 17

Boxng Oscar de la Hoya 44 5

Floyd Mayweather Jr. 4 40 20 20 8

Cycling Lance Armstrong (2006) 30 24

Skiing/
SnowBoarding Shaun White (2009) 6

Bode Miller (2009) 3

1. Rank - Earnings from Sports Illustrated:
The International 20 and Fortune 50 (Americans)
Celebrity from athletes in Fortune survey.

2. Formula 1 auto racer,Michael Schumacher, made $70 Million (about the same as Tiger Woods) in 2002 and Michael Jordan in 1999.
3.Michelle Wie's golf game has dropped off since 2006, when she played in a mens PGA tournament and missed the cut by 4 strokes. As of Feb., 2009 she has never won a LPGA tournament, but is still making a lot from endorsements. Her appearance fees have dropped off with her game. Both Ochoa and Sorenstam were ranked ahead of her in some 2008 salary lists.
4. Mayweather's earnings were primairly from one fight with de la Hoya and a one-fight pro-wrestling deal.
4. Endorsements includes appearance fees which were about $1 M/appearance for Federer .

Sources:
The International 20 and Fortune 50 (Americans) at sportsillustrated.cnn.com
The World's Most powerful Athelets at Forbes (#'s refer to allcelebrities[Opra #1])

Number of athletes in The Sports Illustrated American top 50:

	2004	2008
NBA	24	26
Baseball	12	10
Football	4	7
Golf	2	3
Tennis	3	0
Auto Racing	2	3
Boxing	2	1
Cycling	1	0

Number in Forbes
Top 100 celebrities list

Basketball  5
Golf        4
Tennis      4
Auto Racing 4
Soccer      2
Baseball    1

Other notable athletes not listed:
Danica Patrick (auto racing),Lewis Hamilton (auto racing),Venus Williams (tennis),Andy Roddick (tennis),Freddy Adu (soccer)

Average Salaries for major league athletes (2006):

  * Basketball (NBA) $5,000,000
  * Baseball (MLB)   $2,800,000
  * Football (NFL)   $1,250,000
  * Hockey (NHL)     $1,500,000
  * Men's Golf         $973,495 †
  * Women's Tennis     $345,000 *
  * Men's Tennis (ATP) $260,000 *
  * Women's Golf       $162,043
  * Basketball (WNBA)   $52,000
  * Minor league baseball $850-$2,000/mo or $4,250-$10,000/season

* There are more men playing professional tennis (av. rank = 90) than
women (av. rank = 40).
† - Tiger Woods has raised the purses for everyone in men's golf.
Source:freemoneyFinance.com

Percentage of Revenue that goes to Athletes:

NFL 62%
NBA 57%
NHL 56%
MLB 52%
ATP 26% (tennis)

Source: Tennis Magazine, Apr. 2009

Surveys conducted by talent agency Davie Brown and Marketing Evaluations, compute the Q score ratings used by potential advertisers when considering which celebrities to use in their spots.
Consumer research determines purlic awareness of athlete or celebrity along with a number of characteristics, including appeal and trustworthiness.
Being in high profile ad campaigns helps to bring more high profile ad campaigns.

	Top 10 Jan. 2007
1. Tiger Woods 
2. Michael Jordan 
3. Muhammad Ali 
4. George Foreman 
5. Lance Armstrong 
6. Magic Johnson 
7. Shaquille O'Neal 
8. Joe Montana 
9. Terry Bradshaw 
10. Andre Agassi

Current examples in tennis are Maria Sharapova who has a high Q Score and Roger Federer who has a low Q Score.

In an Article at the Harvard Business School,"The Economic Value of Athlete Endorsers", by Anita Elberse, says:
"To our knowledge, beyond anecdotal evidence captured in popular and trade publications (e.g., The New York Times 2008), no research exists on the impact of endorsements on sales ."

last updated 25 Mar 2009