How Much Does Ryan Hall Make A Year?

If the runners were making a fortune to run and then they underperformed the same people would be citing the Kenyans going on about how they support their families, have no money, come from poor areas, etc etc.

Why should someone make any more money to run than any other job? Running for a living is a dream in itself. Live comfortably, enough for good food, rent, a beer here or there, and that should be enough. Like someone else said, pay the rest less.

why not? wrote:

I don't see why athletes have to make MORE than they could make doing anything else just to be considered fairly paid. Sure, runners don't make as much as pro bball or footall players. but i'd rather see the OVER paid athletes take less. It seems that the runners make a reasonable amount of money.

Perhaps Ryan could potentially be making more money if he took that oh-so-valuable Stanford piece of paper and waved it in front of some fancy businessman's face. But he would then be miserable. Take a pay cut to run and hang out with your wife all day anytime. He's the right person in the right sport at the right time. And just bought a house in Big Bear Lake California so he's got to be pretty well to do no matter how underpaid you think he is.

Are you honestly saying their is enough money in distance running? Wouldn't you like distance running to be like golf, where hundreds of athletes make a living at the sport? In order to get to this point, you need to stars to make a boatload of money.

Whay are you rationalizing a broken system?

It's not always about money. Hall is making more than enough to be comfortable. He is fulfilling a dream, being paid for what he loves. Everyday he wakes up and is able to chase the dream, face the challenge. That is what is important.

BTW, race directors fly the top runners in and put them up and feed them. They also provide appearance money to the top guys/girls. Heck, i got flown in to races and put up in hotles and fed, even got some extra cash just for showing up. This was way back, but i was only a 29:30 10k road racer.

Yeah, I saw on the Houston website that if you have run a certain time, they pay for airline travel, food, and lodging.

athletes at the top of the sport do well enough to be comfortable. they aren't making NBA or NFL dollars, though, and they never will be. Until people are willing to pay big bucks to watch running, the money will be what it is and that will have to be enough.

By the way, you don't get money thrown at you just because you have a degree from Stanford or anywhere else. It helps, but you still have to DO something with that degree. Doubtful Hall would make more in business than he is now just because he went to Stanford. If he didn't run, he'd likely be just another office worker in this country making an average of $40k/yr. You're not guaranteed anything in this world. Better you learn that now.

I seriously doubt Ryan had to pay his own airfare and hotel bill. That is usually picked up by the race organizers. And even if they didn't I'm sure Asics has it written in his contract that they would reimburse him for travel expenses.

Would the government have taxed his winnings too? Down here they thiefs would have taken 30% of his prize money

shizzy wrote:

but he didn't even work the full hour!!!

At least he made up for it by working through his water breaks.

Thinking that Ryan Hall had to pay for his travel expenses is ridiculous. Thinking that Ryan Hall is not making at least $100,000 a year (including performance bonuses and the like) is ridiculous. Thinking that Economics of Running is making any type of an argument is ridiculous.Is there enough money in distance running? No, but considering how much money sponsors can expect in return for their investment I'd have a hard time arguing there is not enough money.Would I like distance running to be like golf where everybody makes tons of money? Of course, but have you ever been to a golf tournament? There are thousands of people paying a pretty penny per ticket over four days, plus tons of sponsors and television rights. So there is money to be spent attracting athletes. Show me a meet, a distance meet for that matter, that has that much money to spend on athletes.Money has to come from somewhere. If you were not a fan of distance running and were not guaranteed a return on your investment, why would YOU put money into that system. I would hardly call it a "broken system" as you have. Having 25-35(?) athletes making a living by running, with all their travel and equipment paid for, looks pretty good to me.And why should distance runners be entitled to millions or hundreds of thousands of dollars? What are we doing that warrants so much money? Sponsored athletes should be grateful for every dollar they receive and the few I know are very thankful.

Asics does a good job in taking care of athletes who perform well. They do this by not over saturating the market with "gear deal" sponsored athletes. Terrence Mahon and Deena had a lot to do with Ryan and Sara getting a shot with Asics. Terrence also had a lot of input with Ian Dobson.

Asics probably set a stipend up with performance bonuses worked into the contract. I will also tell you that if you are an asics athlete and you do something that gets noticed, you will get a bonus check in the mail that you were not expecting. They are good for that.

I am sure he is well taken care of and will be one of thier runners for a long time. Sara was just part of the package.

Ronald Mexico, Esq.

Clarifier wrote:

Thinking that Ryan Hall had to pay for his travel expenses is ridiculous. Thinking that Ryan Hall is not making at least $100,000 a year (including performance bonuses and the like) is ridiculous. Thinking that Economics of Running is making any type of an argument is ridiculous.

You don't know very much about the sport do you? Hall might very well have made $100k from running last year, I don't know. But to say that it's ridiculous to think that he didn't make that much money last year, is, in itself, ridiculous.

Is there an official number, like with the IRS, of how many people file their taxes saying their job is long distance runner? Is there a total for the amount of reported earnings?

Tom

I would have liked to see Hall get more than 5k for the AR. I thought Lagat got something like 20k when he broke the indoor mile record, and visa gives 100k to the top performer at track meets. I think Hall's AR deserves at least 20k, but oh well. Looks like he's surviving okay. haha

That's really up to the meet/race. Remember that big Million Dollar bonus for a sub-8:00 2 mile race? No one broke 8, then someone does it in a race with a $50,000 bonus for any world record.

[quote]why not? wrote:

I don't see why athletes have to make MORE than they could make doing anything else just to be considered fairly paid. Sure, runners don't make as much as pro bball or footall players. but i'd rather see the OVER paid athletes take less. It seems that the runners make a reasonable amount of money.

quote]

Ryan Hall is the 9th best half marathoner ever. how much does the 9th best cornerback make? the 9th best power forward? the 9th best stock broker? the 9th best sales rep in any industry?

The arguement isnt to pay him more than he could make in another job, it is to pay him what being as good as he is in this field is worth in other fields.

Ronald Mexico, Esq. wrote:

Asics probably set a stipend up with performance bonuses worked into the contract. I will also tell you that if you are an asics athlete and you do something that gets noticed, you will get a bonus check in the mail that you were not expecting. They are good for that.

Ronald Mexico, Esq.

As a former Asics athlete, no, they are not good for that. Ryan has a contract that is thought to be between 90-100k. Last year he ran poorly on the track and would rollover no money from there. The 20k AR was probably something like a 5k bonus (non-olympic distance bonuses are alot less) and that may have rolled over. That 1/2 was one of the best American races put together in a while and I have no problem with a guy like Ryan making a million dollars a year like tons of pro athletes in other sports do.

chilled ice wrote:

I would have liked to see Hall get more than 5k for the AR. I thought Lagat got something like 20k when he broke the indoor mile record, and visa gives 100k to the top performer at track meets. I think Hall's AR deserves at least 20k, but oh well. Looks like he's surviving okay. haha

The U.S. indoor mile record is tougher than our 1/2 marathon one. So many of our best runners haven't run one or only did so once. How many 13.1 races did Todd Williams or BK run? I agree though 5K seems too low.

6 figures is legit and he probably spent ~$20 of his own money for the entire weekend. asics also probably will give him a huge bonus for the US win and the national record. probably another 10 grand. he's not hurting for cash

A few of the top runners seem to do quite well financially today but only a very few. There was a day when all runners grovelled for a plane or train ticket. If they could not get one they drove or hitch hiked. Occassionally, we would get some gas money. No wonder the times run in those days were not anywhere near what they are today. And yet there were great indoor meets in most big cities. Track and field drew huge crowds. Track and Field was an exciting sport to the nonathlete. All but the very top runners paid their own way. Of course, we all worked at least 40 hours a week. Still it was all great fun!