Also, comparing to today is difficult. Sports salaries have gone crazy. Michael Jordan made 90 million over his whole 15 year career. The 23rd highest paid nba player will make that much over the next two seasons
Oh yeah if you corrected for inflation the number would be much higher. That still wouldn't change the conclusion that's it's near impossible to become rich playing golf or tennis.
While I agree the overall earnings does seem very low, I don’t know if the comparison to baseball is appropriate. How many more people are in the MLB than the PGA tour? How many more are in the minor leagues (and they don’t make much) and how many more people play baseball in high school and college? Is the percentage of high-earners in golf that much different than baseball? (No clue and I’m not going to research it, but that’s my question lol)
I think in this case absolute numbers is the right metric, not percentage. Creating a farm system for baseball doesn't make it harder for a ballplayer to be a millionaire even though it's driving down the likelihood that a professional ballplayer is a millionaire.
Also, comparing to today is difficult. Sports salaries have gone crazy. Michael Jordan made 90 million over his whole 15 year career. The 23rd highest paid nba player will make that much over the next two seasons
Oh yeah if you corrected for inflation the number would be much higher. That still wouldn't change the conclusion that's it's near impossible to become rich playing golf or tennis.
While I agree the overall earnings does seem very low, I don’t know if the comparison to baseball is appropriate. How many more people are in the MLB than the PGA tour? How many more are in the minor leagues (and they don’t make much) and how many more people play baseball in high school and college? Is the percentage of high-earners in golf that much different than baseball? (No clue and I’m not going to research it, but that’s my question lol)
I think in this case absolute numbers is the right metric, not percentage. Creating a farm system for baseball doesn't make it harder for a ballplayer to be a millionaire even though it's driving down the likelihood that a professional ballplayer is a millionaire.