January 30th, 2008
Golfers: Show us the money, we’ll follow
That old tyme running conundrum - appearance money versus prize money - reared up this past weekend at, of all places, the PGA TOUR. San Diego Union Tribune columnist Tim Sullivan lays out the issue of guaranteed money at the European Tour’s Qatar Masters syphoning nine of the world’s top 25 pros away from the prize-money-only Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, site of this summer’s U.S. Open. “Players say: Show us the money, we’ll follow.” If only running’s money was of a similar scale. Should running move towards prize money only?
“Players say: Show us the money, we’ll follow”
Last 5 posts by Toni Reavis- KIDS NEED HEROES: A CALL TO INSPIRE - November 10th, 2008
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January 31st, 2008 at 3:27 pm |
[…] brings up a great debate about appearance money versus prize money in his most recent feature article. He cites the recent […]
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:15 pm |
I think that 100% prize money would be effective but the problem is that it never seems to happen. The European track meets started to head in this direction but all that ended up happening was that they gave 90% of the athletes no appearance and still gave the same appearance fees to the top 10% as well as up the prize money for this top 10%. As a result athletes that might have got a small guaranteed appearance before became at the risk of running really well but if they came 9th getting nothing. It became a case of the rich getting richer and the developing athlete at risk of leaving the sport. This is particularly relevant for the athlete that needs prize money to survive. This is typically the non-Americans who can’t rely on a contract to keep training and support themselves and their family. In turn this leads to more of these athletes either leaving the sport or (in the case of distance running) turning more to running on the road. In a curious circle it then means that more non-Americans end up racing on the roads in America and taking the small amounts of money that are left in all the races in America.