For being at a level roughly equivalent to what we call a "sub elite" runner, I'd say soccer has the most money. Someone at that level could probably at least play in the Austrian 2nd division or something.
College football and college basketball gives full scholarships to athletes who are nowhere near elite. The quantity and lack of quality of the funded players is astounding.
I was thinking Golf. A track athlete ranked like 500-1000 in their event globally would be able to win a few 100 dollars here or there for winning a road race or large track event. The highest earning figures that a sub elite runner will ever experience is when they get a scholarship for college. Thats it. If you are ranked in the top 1000 in the world in golf, you are making close to six figures.
I was thinking Golf. A track athlete ranked like 500-1000 in their event globally would be able to win a few 100 dollars here or there for winning a road race or large track event. The highest earning figures that a sub elite runner will ever experience is when they get a scholarship for college. Thats it. If you are ranked in the top 1000 in the world in golf, you are making close to six figures.
I'd bet there are at least 1000 soccer players making over 6 figures. The premier league alone gets close to half of that, and if 6 figures is our bar, we're adding a ton more leagues to our list. If we break it down by position groups we may even still get close to 1000 each.
I was thinking Golf. A track athlete ranked like 500-1000 in their event globally would be able to win a few 100 dollars here or there for winning a road race or large track event. The highest earning figures that a sub elite runner will ever experience is when they get a scholarship for college. Thats it. If you are ranked in the top 1000 in the world in golf, you are making close to six figures.
I'd bet there are at least 1000 soccer players making over 6 figures. The premier league alone gets close to half of that, and if 6 figures is our bar, we're adding a ton more leagues to our list. If we break it down by position groups we may even still get close to 1000 each.
Do you mean, 1000 soccer players making 7 figures?
The NFL minimum salary is getting pretty close to 7 figures and it has 1600 players
I'd bet there are at least 1000 soccer players making over 6 figures. The premier league alone gets close to half of that, and if 6 figures is our bar, we're adding a ton more leagues to our list. If we break it down by position groups we may even still get close to 1000 each.
Do you mean, 1000 soccer players making 7 figures?
The NFL minimum salary is getting pretty close to 7 figures and it has 1600 players
Between the top European leagues and some top players at leagues a step down, I bet we do get over 1000 total at 7 figures. If we're thinking 6 figures, there were 26 leagues with average salaries over that in 2022 it looks like, maybe 27 since this list in in British pounds.
Not every league has the same number of teams, and some guys are below that average. Since I'm too lazy to see how many teams are in each league, and I know some guys are below that average, I'll estimate 300 players in each of the 26 leagues to be making over 100k, and get 7800. That's for sure over 1000 per position groups broken down as "forward, midfielder, defender", but I don't think we can include goalies here. We might be able to break up center backs vs outside backs or wingers vs strikers and still get 1000 each over 6 figures, but I'm not quite as confident about that.
This post was edited 4 minutes after it was posted.
If you consider anyone (not everyone, aka the bottom %) that has a NFL contract as sub elite then it's the NFL no question. Especially when you consider the amount of money vs the amount of 'play time'.
A total of 1,696 players make up the NFL's active rosters. Practice squad players make $12,000 per week or $216,000 for 18 weeks The minimum salary for an NFL player in 2023 is currently $750,000
You could be on the practice squad for 20 years and never see a single minute of play time and retire. You could have a full contract as a third string and rarely step on the field and retire comfortably after a decade.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
it would be something like reserve OL, third string QB, back end of a MLB bullpen. conservatively staffed, highly compensated, but incompetent if they play. maybe 3rd string keeper in soccer.
i don't buy soccer in general because it has the transfer system where if they kick the tires and don't want you around, your contract gets sold or loaned out. other than the last string keeper who never sees the field, or plays with a reserve team, they will not let some scrub/mistake hog a roster spot. they will make you someone else's problem.