Highest Paid Athletes

Have you ever wondered who the highest paid athletes in the world are?  It might surprise you that the top ten highest paid athletes range from race car drivers, golfers, basketball players, and a baseball player.  There is not a national football player in the top ten. 

Despite his recent controversial lifestyle, Tiger Woods is still the highest paid athlete raking in around 110 million dollars a year and no one is even close.  Tiger is nearing the one billion mark totaling his 13 year career.  He still has endorsements from Nike, Gillette, and Buick.  Phil Mickelson, the rival of Tiger, comes in the number five spot making nearly 40 million a year.  His endorsements include Callaway and Rolex.

The two best basketball players in the world crack the top four spots.  Kobe Bryant is the second highest paid athlete and Lebron James follows him in the number four slot.  Kobe earns around 45 million a year while Lebron is at 40 million.  Despite Kobe’s sexual assault accusation, he still has strong endorsements from Coca-Cola, Vitamin Water, and Nike.  Lebron may take over the lead spot in the NBA in the next few years.  Lebron has won the NBA’s MVP award the last two years and his popularity has sky rocketed since joining the Miami Heat.  His endorsements include Nike, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and others.

Wrapping up the list at number ten is Yankee’s third basemen Alex Rodriguez.  A-Rod is famous for signing the 225 million dollar contract that put the Texas Rangers into near bankruptcy.  He then signed a 275 million dollar contract with the Yankees after only playing for the Rangers for three years.  Both were the biggest baseball contracts of their time.  He makes around 27.5 million dollars a year strictly on his contract.  His recent steroid allegations and poor reputation hinders his ability to sign endorsement deals with big companies.

If you want to see the complete list of the top ten highest paid athletes, click this website.  http://www.mensweekly.net/2010/04/17/10-highest-paid-athletes-2/

This blog is prepared by a paralegal student as a class project, without compensation. The content of this blog contains my opinion, and is offered for personal interest without warranty of any kind. Comments posted by others on this blog are the responsibility of the posters of those messages. The reader is solely responsible for verifying the content of this blog and any linked information. Content, sources, information, and links will most likely change over time. The content of this blog may not be construed as legal, medical, business, or personal advice.

Winning Equals Getting Paid

College football is viewed as the second most popular sport behind the NFL.  There are millions of dollars spent on tickets, concessions, apparel, and tail gaiting across the country.  Universities spend money on recruiting players, equipment and uniforms, and multi-million dollar facilities and stadiums.  Money is even spent on full ride scholarships for the players.  However, all of this means nothing if the school isn’t winning games.

The most important person in the college football program is the head coach.  The team usually takes on the personality of their leader.  Some coaches are strict and loud like a drill sergeant, and some are player friendly and mild mannered.  All kinds of coaching personalities have been successful.  But how much do the best coaches in America make?  There are three considerations that a University makes when deciding what they will pay their head football coach, (1) Experience (2) Previous Record, and (3) Public Appeal.  The best coaches have experience, winning records, and are attractive to the fans of their school.

Here are the salaries of the top five highest paid football coaches in the NCAA:

Bob Stoops – University of Oklahoma $4,303,000

Urban Meyer – University of Florida $4,000,000

Nick Saban – University of Alabama $3,900,000

Les Miles – Louisiana State University $3,751, 000

Jim Tressel – The Ohio State University $3,722,000

http://www.eduinreview.com/blog/2010/07/bob-stoops-leads-highest-paid-college-football-coaches/

All of these five coaches have one thing in common.  They have won BCS National Championship games.  This proves that winning in sports will always make you richer and more marketable. 

This blog is prepared by a paralegal student as a class project, without compensation. The content of this blog contains my opinion, and is offered for personal interest without warranty of any kind. Comments posted by others on this blog are the responsibility of the posters of those messages. The reader is solely responsible for verifying the content of this blog and any linked information. Content, sources, information, and links will most likely change over time. The content of this blog may not be construed as legal, medical, business, or personal advice.

Want to be a Sports Agent?

Professional athletes are paid a great amount of money for the services that they provide.  Even with the economic crisis, athletes are signing record contracts that are worth over a hundred million dollars.  One of the big reasons these contracts are being made is the representation of the athlete by their agent.  Sports agents play a crucial role in the business side of sports.

What do agents do?  Agents have five main duties that they perform for their client.  First, they negotiate contracts for their clients.  Agents must have some expertise with contract law.  They must know what other players are being paid so they can set a proper amount for their client, and must negotiate the little details of the contract.

Second, the agent markets and promotes the image of their client.  This makes the athlete more attractive for sponsors to use in commercials.  It can also help the player raise funds in charities.

Third, the agent is a financial planner.  The agent should manage the amount of money their client receives, although this hardly happens.  The client might hire an accountant for a very rich client.

Fourth, the agent acts as a spokesperson and mediator for their client.  If the athlete is involved in a dispute or commits a crime, the agent may be the one who addresses the media or attempts to resolve the issue.

Finally, the agent must travel in behalf of their client.  If an agent has many clients, he/she may have to travel across the country multiple times a week.  The agent is always on call and may have to travel on short notice to represent a client.

http://www.ehow.com/list_6323558_duties-sports-agent_.html

Being a sports agent would be a very excited career for people interested in sports.  The pay is another perk to the profession.  An agent’s salary is based on a percentage of a client’s yearly salary.  The NFL, NBA, and MLB all have different league minimums and salary caps that must be obeyed.  An agent can make between $240 to $1,120,000 a year from just one client.  Here is a chart to show the minimum and maximum an agent can make in different professional sports.

	Athlete's Yearly Salary:
Sport:	Low:	High:	Agent Advisor Commission:
National Football League (NFL)	$225,000	$20,000,000	$6,750 - $600,000
Arena Football League (AFL)	$28,000	$240,000	$840 - $9,600
Canadian Football League (CFL)	$75,000	$275,000	$3,000 - $11,000
National Basketball Assoc. (NBA)	$385,000	$28,000,000	$15,400 - $1,120,000
European Basketball	$6,000	$1,000,000	$240 - $40,000
Major League Baseball (MLB)	$300,000	$22,000,000	$12,000 - $880,000
National Hockey League (NHL)	$350,000	$10,000,000	$14,000 - $400,000
Minor League Hockey	$10,000	$200,000	$400 - $20,000
Major League Soccer (MLS)	$15,000	$500,000	$600 - $20,000
European Soccer	$45,000	$7,800,000	$1,800 - $312,000

http://www.sportsmanagementworldwide.com/courses/athlete-management-sports-agent/salaries

This blog is prepared by a paralegal student as a class project, without compensation. The content of this blog contains my opinion, and is offered for personal interest without warranty of any kind. Comments posted by others on this blog are the responsibility of the posters of those messages. The reader is solely responsible for verifying the content of this blog and any linked information. Content, sources, information, and links will most likely change over time. The content of this blog may not be construed as legal, medical, business, or personal advice.

Steroids and Baseball

The recession has hit baseball pretty hard.  Attendance is down, people are not paying the ridiculous prices for hotdogs and beer at the concessions, and team apparel is not being purchased at the stadium.  Who wants to pay $10 for parking, about $100 for tickets for a family of four, and another $70 on food and drinks?  An average family pays about a couple hundred dollars to go to a baseball game.  Another factor that hurts attendance is the limited number of playoff teams.  Major League Baseball consists of 30 teams, and only 8 make the playoffs.  A majority of the teams are out of the playoff hunt with three months left to play in the season, but the hefty prices never change.  People are not going to pay a large amount of money to watch a team 25 games back from the first place team.  Baseball is eventually going to have to expand the playoffs to at least 12 to 16 teams.  But could baseball get a quick fix by boosting the excitement of the game.

Dare I say baseball needs steroids?  Steroids in the baseball community are viewed as one of the only unforgiveable sins.  So why did baseball turn its back on the steroid issue when Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa were hitting fifty, sixty, and seventy home runs a year?  The answer is revenue.  Major League Baseball was extremely popular in 1998 when McGwire and Sosa were chasing Roger Maris’ 61 home run record.  Baseball popularity was so high because of these two players, it filled up stadiums across the nation.  McGwire eventually ended up with 70 that season, and then was taken over by Bonds when he hit 73 years later.  Bonds eventually ended up with the career record of homeruns with 762, beating Hank Aaron’s long standing record of 755.

                                         

Steroids made baseball so much more interesting by achieving huge offensive numbers, and by making villians out of players.  McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds never tested positive for steroids, it was just assumed by testimony of other players.  McGwire eventually admitted to using just last year.  These three players were humiliated and heavily scrutinized by the baseball media.  Most fans despised them for their "perceived" cheating ways.  However, having the bad guys in baseball made it more relevant.  Fans will root harder for players they hate to fail, than players they like to succeed.

The casual fan doesn’t want to see a 1-0 pitcher’s duel, even though an old school baseball fan might prefer this scenario.  The battle of attaining the most revenue is won by winning the casual fan.  Steroids boost the offensive numbers that most people want to see.  Baseball’s halfhearted policing of steroids was even addressed in Congress, but Congress should really have no opinion of the issue.  I believe they have enough to worry about then steroids in baseball.  Some people believe it is the player's body, he can do with it what he wants to.  It is extremely unrealistic to think baseball would ever lift its ban on steroids.  But would it be better off by doing so?

http://wdryegoods.blogspot.com/2010/01/baseballs-steroids-era-mirrors-americas.html

This blog is prepared by a paralegal student as a class project, without compensation. The content of this blog contains my opinion, and is offered for personal interest without warranty of any kind. Comments posted by others on this blog are the responsibility of the posters of those messages. The reader is solely responsible for verifying the content of this blog and any linked information. Content, sources, information, and links will most likely change over time. The content of this blog may not be construed as legal, medical, business, or personal advice.

Greed and the NFL

There are new labor negotiations in the National Football League. The threat of a lock out in 2011 leaves most fans disgusted. They are tired of hearing billionaires and millionaires argue about issues including extending the schedule and paying veteran players more than rookies.  The 2010 number one overall pick in the draft, Sam Bradford, received a 6 year, $78 million contract, with $50 million guaranteed.  http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5425041

How can these issues exist when the NFL is the most popular it has ever been in its existence?  NFL ratings destroy every other sport broadcasted in the country.  Baseball is almost inexistent when week one of the NFL starts.  So why are these owners wanting to expand the schedule to produce more revenue, and put the health of the players in jeopardy?  The only real answer I can think of is greed.

Half of the owners of NFL teams are billionaires.  The one with the most money in his pocket is Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen.  Allen is the cofounder of Microsoft and is worth approximately $32.9 billion.  Stephen Ross is the co-owner of the Miami Dolphins, and is worth $3.1 billion.  Ross is a real estate developer.  Arthur Blank, owner of the Atlanta Falcons, is a Home Depot co-founder and is also worth over a billion.  Maybe the most interesting owner worth over a billion is Robert McNair of the Houston Texans.  He sold his company, Cogen Industries, to Enron just before its collapse.  http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ys-forbesnflbillionaires100110

Most of these owners don’t care about having a winning ball club.  These owners only care about how to get more cash in their wallet.  There some exceptions to the rule however.  Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys and Dan Snyder of the Washington Redskins are just a few owners who will open up their own pocketbook for the benefit of the team.  The Green Bay Packers have no majority owner and the team is owned by shareholders who mostly consist of people from Wisconsin.

The bottom line of the labor negotiations is the owners want more money, and the players don’t want to do more work without getting more money themselves.  These arguments will get settled and there will not be a lock out in 2011.  This problem isn’t big enough where there will be no football played, then everybody loses.

On a lighter note, here is a link for some football bloopers for your enjoyment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibEXYHUfJBM&feature=related

This blog is prepared by a paralegal student as a class project, without compensation. The content of this blog contains my opinion, and is offered for personal interest without warranty of any kind. Comments posted by others on this blog are the responsibility of the posters of those messages. The reader is solely responsible for verifying the content of this blog and any linked information. Content, sources, information, and links will most likely change over time. The content of this blog may not be construed as legal, medical, business, or personal advice.