Tiger Woods Becomes First Athlete To Earn Over $1 Billion
Posted by Media Outrage on October 5, 2009
Tiger Woods has become the first athlete to earn over a billion dollars in his career.
Via Forbes:
Tiger Woods has been making history on and off the course since he joined the PGA Tour in 1996. First up was a record $40 million contract from Nike. The following year he won the Masters by a record 12 strokes, becoming the youngest winner ever and first black player to take the title. His career has been packed full of accomplishments, including major titles (14), annual money titles (9) and Player of the Year awards (9).
Now Woods can add one more accolade to his trophy case: the first athlete to earn $1 billion. Our calculations show that the $10 million bonus Woods earned winning this year’s FedEx Cup title nudged him over the $1 billion mark in career earnings.
Forbes has been tracking athlete earnings since before Tiger turned pro. Woods had earned a cumulative $895 million going into 2009, by our estimates, from prize money, appearance fees, endorsements, bonuses and his golf course design business. If you add his $10.5 million in 2009 prize money, the FedEx bonus and his take so far this year from his more than $100 million in annual off-the-course earnings, Woods’ career earnings are now 10 figures.
Woods has only two real competitors when it comes to career earnings among athletes: the two Michaels, Jordan and Schumacher, who dominated their respective sports for nearly 15 years. Jordan’s earning peaked during his last season with the Chicago Bulls (1998-’99), when he earned $69 million in salary and endorsement income.
Jordan continues to earn $45 million annually, almost entirely from Nike ( NKE – news – people ). We estimate that Jordan has earned $800 million since he entered the NBA in 1984. Annual sales of the Jordan brand are now $1 billion for Nike, so MJ should hit the $1 billion mark in career earnings in the next four to five years.
Schumacher’s earnings peaked at $80 million in 2003, when he won his record sixth World Drivers’ Championship (he won a seventh title the following year). His $40 million salary was the highest in sports at the time and his income doubled when you factored in endorsements, licensing deals and championship bonuses. Schumacher has earned $700 million, by our count, since his Formula One debut in 1991.
Mediaoutrage- Interesting how he just flew right on by Mike. That’s a lot of cake right there.
Lio said
WROOOOOOOONG……896 MILLIONS he will reach the billion dollar mark next year…but who cares ? my question is how much Nike made on his ass ..10 billions I bet
ucanb2 said
Right!
Atlanta said
I aint mad at the rabbit teeth ass nicca. If only he had shared that wealth with a black women or even an oriental woman like his mom. Oh well, he still has a beatiful family. I wish much more success for him in the future.
MissTX85 said
Good for him.
Ms_Behave said
Why is there always some derogatory remark made if someone black dates outside of their race, it’s not that serious, the man has a CHOICE dammit! and don’t even begin to top off insult with a compliment.
If he was WHITE and had a BLACK woman, would it be ‘appropriate’ to ask why he ISN’T he with a WHITE woman and shared his wealth with her, or it only works from a black perspective <– Reverse Racism.
"Remove yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind".
Neveralmosthadu said
I love this article but did anyone else click on to see his teeth? I had to. They are sooooo white!
Michelle said
Hes a cheater… Even if he does share his wealth with his wife, he isnt faithful to her.
Michelle said
ask him about his 2 year affair!