Kerr got $40,000 for his win in Glasgow and $70,000 for his 1500m win at Worlds last year, and the Telegraph writes that that $110,000 "for becoming double world champ is less than half" what a darts player received for reaching the world final earlier this year. It is a stone-cold fact there is no money in track and field. The big market sponsorships sadly are not there. I started to play in the WSOP last year and have seen no name poker players score $1,000,000 pay days with a good grind in a tournament. Track is a sport you do because you love the competition not for the money 99% of track athletes are going to need to have a post athletic career once they dry up sadly its true, it's not a Tom Brady type of money sport.
Why would anyone be surprised in a sport that almost never has drama and can be deduced to an athlete simply moving their legs faster than others? That's it. It's generally a boring sport. The excitement of track and field peaks in that last 400 almost no matter what the distance is.
If that’s what distance running is to you, why do you even follow the sport? Was Purrier St. Pierre‘s incredible win at world indoors just someone moving her legs faster than others?
I understand what you're saying and I agree there isn't enough money in T&F, but if you include all of the champions of 20+ events and/or the prize money for all the placing athletes, that's a decent chunk of change. The prize pool is not equal to other sports because we have 20 1st places, not 1. His real equivalent would be $110,000 times 20+ which is a lot of money for 2 meets and doesn't include his sponsorship base pay, bonus, and the pay just showing up to certain meets.
To be clear, I want there to be millions per winner in T&F, but it also makes sense why they get paid "so little".
This was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the darts comparison.
Add to that, if you're a fan of darts (and you really want to watch it), you'll be able to see it uninterrupted from start to finish - just like every other major sport. Therefore, people will tune in to watch it - which is what increases revenue, and thereby increases prizemoney.
If you're interested in distance running though, good luck trying to watch an entire race. You might see 50% of it. The rest will be filled with jumpers adjusting their underpants, throwers sitting around towelling themselves, and sprinters with headphones on in the call room - all of which, you have zero interest in.
Additionally, across a 2 hour broadcast, there might be 3-4 events you want to watch, which will be spaced out, so you have to sit through more than 90 minutes of uninteresting garbage, just so that you might see a few laps of the thing you're after (and you'll likely miss vital moments of the races anyway, such as km splits, tactical moves, etc.)
Track and field has little prizemoney, because it spreads itself too thin and punishes its audience - who inevitably give up trying to watch it.
$110,000 is not bad for 12 minutes work, in the grand scheme of things,
and a lot more training time--runners do it for the love of it. that's what Steve Kerr makes in a half of coaching the San Francisco Warriors--about $220,000 per game!
Kerr got $40,000 for his win in Glasgow and $70,000 for his 1500m win at Worlds last year, and the Telegraph writes that that $110,000 "for becoming double world champ is less than half" what a darts player received for reaching the world final earlier this year. It is a stone-cold fact there is no money in track and field. The big market sponsorships sadly are not there. I started to play in the WSOP last year and have seen no name poker players score $1,000,000 pay days with a good grind in a tournament. Track is a sport you do because you love the competition not for the money 99% of track athletes are going to need to have a post athletic career once they dry up sadly its true, it's not a Tom Brady type of money sport.
This might explain the darts player earnings. Audience numbers plays a huge part:
As it happens I'm rereading Running Scared from 1996. A lot of it is about a deeply wicked man who died some years ago but it gives lots of info about elite athletics fees and prizes and it struck me that almost 30 years later the sums seem not to have moved on so much.
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