In case anyone needs a reminder, performance on the field is only part of what pro sports is all about. In ranking The World's 50 Most Valuable Athletes, we were often reminded of that reality. As in the world of corporate CEOs, you'll find plenty of pay-performance anomalies. Anna Kournikova earned an estimated $10 million (all currency in U.S. dollars) last year, yet she has never won a major tennis tournament, arguably has little chance of doing so, and recently stood at No. 11 in the Sanex WTA Tour rankings.
The factors that give one athlete more marquee value than another are hard to quantify. But the exercise is revealing. As with recent rankings of the world's greatest novels or films, there are disagreements. Who's to say that Ulysses (not that anyone has ever finished it) is better than The Great Gatsby? Or that Citizen Kane is better than Casablanca?
We used four elements to rank 50 currently active elite athletes, each element weighted equally. Money obviously reflects the perceived value of an athlete. So we totalled salaries and winnings for 2000 or the latest season, and the most reliable published estimates of their endorsements.
Performance obviously counts too. To even compete at the top levels of any sport is a huge accomplishment, so none of the 50 earned a failing grade. But to earn extra marks, they had to win, and win big. They or their team had to win a cup, an Olympic medal or a major championship, and they had to win top-level individual awards and rack up impressive scoring statistics. In golf, for example, the majors are the Masters, the PGA Championship, the US Open and the British Open.
The media plays an integral role in modern sport. But comparisons of athletes in different sports are difficult, since each one has many specialty publications devoted to it in many countries. We turned to the newspapers of record in Canada, the United States and Britain: The Globe and Mail, The New York Times and The Times of London. We tabulated the number of stories from the beginning of 2000 to June, 2001, that mentioned each athlete. We also totalled the number of cover stories devoted to each athlete by Time magazine, Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News. Two athletes earned Time covers last year: Tiger Woods and Marion Jones. In our scoring system, a Time cover had double the value of a Sports Illustrated cover, which was worth double a Sporting News cover.
Finally, we consulted four authorities on both sports and business: TSN president Keith Pelley, Toronto Blue Jays president and CEO Paul Godfrey, sports columnist Stephen Brunt of The Globe and Mail, and Marion Lay, a former Olympic swimmer and chair of the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Winter Olympics bid committee. We asked them to choose their Top 10 athletes from our list, and requested their opinions on other issues as well.
The overall results provided a snapshot of just how much pro sports, and North America's view of it, has changed over the last decade or two. Basketball, golf, Formula One racing and soccer are on the rise. Pro football and hockey pale in comparison. Part of that shift is due to incredibly talented or charismatic performers in recent years: Michael Jordan in basketball, Michael Schumacher in auto racing, and Tiger Woods in golf. Because of the big money at stake, there is also the growing imperative of building global audiences.
Of course, some athletes' sheer talent awes everyone. All four panelists picked Marion Jones as the most valuable female athlete, based on her dominance of the women's sprints at last year's Sydney Olympics, where she won three gold medals and two bronze. "She has left the field behind," said Lay. "She's already, arguably, the greatest female athlete of all time, and still has a few years left in her prime," said Brunt. "[But]because track and field is a once-every-four-year sport in North America, she tends to be overlooked outside the Olympic hype."
Three of the four panelists also identified Jones as the most underpaid athlete. The only exception was Pelley, who chose hulking, brooding, seven-time Wimbledon men's singles champion Pete Sampras (who was defeated in the third round this year). "It just goes to prove how non-marketable a non-flamboyant personality is," said Pelley.
As for the most overpaid athlete, Mike Tyson was cited most often. "People pay a lot of money to watch him try to kill his opponents. He is a terrible role model," said Godfrey. But pro sports need villains as well as heroes. However much even Tyson dislikes his image, it's paid off. According to Brunt, the huge sums that Tyson can command (he was paid $20 million for three fights last year) "represent how much people are willing to pay to watch his fights on pay-per-view television. I'm not sure there's any point in trying to attach any other value system in terms of, Are they really worth it? The question would be whether sports, as the great mass diversion, is really worth it."
Fans have long wondered whether money was a corrupting influence. In 1925, Red Grange, the "Galloping Ghost," quit the University of Illinois and signed a $100,000 football contract with the Chicago Bears. Critics blamed his personal manager, C.C. "Cash and Carry" Pyle. In 1930, Babe Ruth was asked how he could demand an $80,000 salary, more than U.S. President Herbert Hoover. "Well, I had a better year than he had," said Ruth. Joe DiMaggio pitched for Camel cigarettes during his playing days. Willie Mays hawked Chesterfields.
Playing careers are usually brutish and short--in basketball and football the average is less than five years, and there's no Seniors Tour. Elite athletes have to generate as much cash as they can while they can. The financially astute ones also make long-term plans. Arnold Palmer is often cited as the prototype. He won his last major championship, the Masters, in 1964. In 1967, after 13 years on the PGA Tour, he finally surpassed $1 million in career tournament winnings. By then, Palmer was earning millions more from endorsements, thanks to lawyer Mark McCormack, the founder of International Management Group. Last year, at age 71, Palmer still earned $16 million, largely from endorsement deals with companies including Cadillac and Office Depot.
Tiger Woods turned pro in mid-1996 and racked up $2.7 million in tournament winnings in his first year on the Tour. At that rate, he was a bargain: According to one estimate, Woods generated $650 million in new revenues for television networks, equipment manufacturers and other businesses in that first year. He now earns $20 million a year from his endorsement of Nike. Imagine how much he'll earn when he's 71. Or what competitors then will make.
The Panel Picks We asked our experst to choose their 10 favourites from our list
Paul Godfrey President and CEO of Toronto Blue Jays
1. Tiger Woods
2. Carlos Delgado
3. Vince Carter
4. Michael Schumacher
5. Joe Sakic
6. Allen Iverson
7. Pete Sampras
8. Ken Griffey, Jr.
9. Mario Lemieux
10. Randy Moss Names I would have liked to see:
Barry Bonds -- he has the raw talent, but is disliked by many, Ichiro Suzuki -- the most talented player in baseball today.
Marion Lay Chair, Vancouver Whistler 2010 Bid Corp.
1. Marion Jones
2. Martina Hingis
3. Tiger Woods
4. Alex Rodrigues
5. Jacques Villeneuve
6. Venus Williams
7. Zinédine Zidane
8. Sammy Sosa
9. Shaquille O'Neal
10. Michael Schumacher Names I would have liked to see:
Nancy Green Raine -- her impact has continued to introduce kids to skiing and raised funds for decades.
Keith Pelley President, TSN
1. Tiger Woods
2. Michael Schumacher
3. David Beckham
4. Mike Hakkinen
5. Andre Agassi
6. Rivaldo
7. Shaquille O'Neal
8. Mike Tyson
9. Mario Lemieux
10. Alex Rodriguez Names I would have liked to see: Cal Ripken Jr., Emmitt Smith,
Dominik Hasek, Roy Jones Jr., Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus.
Stephen Brunt Sports columnist, The Globe and Mail
1. Tiger Woods
2. Rivaldo
3. Michael Schumacher
4. Shaquille O'Neal
5. Maurice Green
6. Marion Jones
7. David Beckham
8. Allen Iverson
9. Alex Rodriquez
10. Randy Moss Names I would have liked to see: There are several boxers who are close: Felix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr. and
Oscar De La Hoya. Barry Bonds -- if he hits 80 home runs this year.
The World's 50 Most Valuable Athletes
Winning isn't everything. Nor is money. Our ranking of athletes' star power factors in pay, competitive performance, media impact and votes from our panel of experts.
Perfor-
Magazine Covers
Money
mance
News-
Sports
$U.S.
last
paper
Illus-.
Sporting
Panel
Rank
millions
season
stories.
trated.
News
Time
Votes.
1. Tiger Woods 63.1 A+ 1,372 5 1 1 4
Sport: Golf
2. Michael Schumacher 59 A+ 509 - - - 4
Sport: Automobile Racing
3. Shaquille O'Neal 24 A+ 307 2 6 - 3
Sport: Basketball
4. Alex Rodriguez 35.2 B+ 272 - 4 - 3
Sport: Baseball
5. Mike Tyson 48 B+ 568 - - - 1
Sport: Boxing
6. Allen Iverson 14.3 A- 303 - 2 - 2
Sport: Basketball
7. Marion Jones 2.7 A 205 1 - 1 2
Sport: Track and Field
8. Vince Carter 4.2 B 627 2 2 - 1
Sport: Basketball
9. David Beckham 10.6 B 1,238 - - - 2
Sport: Soccer
10. Ken Griffey Jr 11.3 B 122 2 4 - 1
Sport: Baseball
11. Sammy Sosa 18 B+ 139 1 1 - 1
Sport: Baseball
12. Derek Jeter 18.9 A+ 298 - 3 - -
Sport: Baseball
13. Carlos Delgado 17 B+ 423 - - - 1
Sport: Baseball
14. Mario Lemieux 1.4 C+ 330 1 - - 2
Sport: Hockey
15. Kobe Bryant 20 A- 215 1 3 - -
Sport: Basketball
16. Joe Sakic 7.9 A 263 - - - 1
Sport: Hockey
17. Rivaldo 7 B- 194 - - - 2
Sport: Soccer
18. Mika Hakkinen 10 A- 314 - - - 1
Sport: Automobile Racing
19. Andre Agassi 17.5 C- 521 - - - 1
Sport: Tennis
20. Zinédine Zidane 11.4 A- 174 - - - 1
Sport: Soccer
21. Venus Williams 10 B 361 - - - 1
Sport: Tennis
22. Lennox Lewis 23 B+ 419 - - - -
Sport: Boxing
23. Maurice Greene 3 A+ 193 - - - 1
Sport: Track and Field
24. Martina Hingis 11 C- 517 - - - 1
Sport: Tennis
25. Ray Lewis 6.5 A- 132 - 3 - -
Sport: Football
26. Kurt Warner 7.1 C 113 2 7 - -
Sport: Football
27. Michael Owen 6.5 B+ 695 - - - -
Sport: Soccer
28. Mark McGwire 15 B 177 1 1 - -
Sport: Baseball
29. Pete Sampras 3 C- 576 - - - 1
Sport: Tennis
30. Jacques Villeneuve 16 D 217 - - - 1
Sport: Automobile Racing
31. Tracy McGrady 15.3 B+ 229 - - - -
Sport: Basketball
32. Jaromir Jagr 9.5 B+ 298 - 1 - -
Sport: Hockey
33. Randy Moss 1.2 C- 52 - 1 - 2
Sport: Football
34. Luis Figo 6.3 A 269 - - - -
Sport: Soccer
35. Kevin Brown 15.7 B 76 - - - -
Sport: Baseball
36. Karrie Webb 7.5 A- 223 - - - -
Sport: Golf
36. David Coulthard 4.8 B 380 - - - -
Sport: Automobile Racing
38. Mats Sundin 7.5 C+ 347 - - - -
Sport: Hockey
39. Roger Clemens 7 B 322 - - - -
Sport: Baseball
40. Hasim Rahman 1.5 A- 106 - - - -
Sport: Boxing
41. Daunte Culpepper 1.4 B- 34 1 1 - -
Sport: Football
42. Marshall Faulk 7.5 B- 57 - 1 - -
Sport: Football
43. Chris Pronger 4.7 C 136 - - - -
Sport: Hockey
44. Anna Kournikova 10 D- 313 1 - - -
Sport: Tennis
45. Phil Mickelson 9 D+ 259 - - - -
Sport: Golf
46. Rio Ferdinand 5.1 C 357 - - - -
Sport: Soccer
47. Ronaldo 7.3 C 126 - - - -
Sport: Soccer
48. Annika Sorenstam 1.4 D+ 205 - - - -
Sport: Golf
49. Evander Holyfield 5 D+ 156 - - - -
Sport: Boxing
50. Jason Sehorn 5.6 C 35 - - - -
Sport: Football