Ed Warner: Gold rush for athletes as sport venures into crazy territory
Jake Paul’s fight with Mike Tyson is the latest proof that these are lucrative times in sport whatever your age or experience, writes Ed Warner.
Too much money chasing too few goods spells inflation. In the madcap pursuit of novel sporting ventures it is the athletes whose prices are swelling.
Dazzled though they (and their agents) might be, the stars must surely recognise the inherent craziness of many of the schemes currently being touted. Even so, it’s hard to blame those with time-limited careers who chose to cash in on their celebrity.
A peak of 65m households are said to have tuned in live on Netflix to watch young influencer Jake Paul and aged former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson shuffle their way through a short-form boxing bout. The streaming broadcaster won’t have been thrilled by the reviews of the fight but was quick to bruit its viewing figures.
A reported $20m better off as a result of the contest (before his entourage’s cut), it’s little wonder that the well-beaten Tyson declined to say that he would now slip back into retirement: “I don’t know. It depends on the situation.”
Forget the gentle fun of charity football matches starring retired players who can’t all now bend down to lace their boots, or exhibition tennis tournaments with former champions relying on muscle memory and crowds wallowing in nostalgia. The economics of sport are being transformed by deep pools of private wealth and broadcasters scrambling for audiences.
Superstars can expect prolonged careers on the pitch, course, court and in the ring. Just so long as they still have to some recognisable degree “got it”. Perhaps a fellow former champion nearer Tyson’s own 58 years of age might be lined up for his next big payday.
England prop Joe Marler announced his retirement from international rugby on 3 November. Days later stories emerged of a global franchise competition that would scoop up a couple of hundred players on lucrative contracts.
If true – and there are doubts about the project’s authenticity – players who sign could find themselves exiled from international rugby. Joe Marler might just land himself a welcome career extension, along with others whose time is nearly up. His reaction on social media: “Why couldn’t this have been set up 5 years ago?!! Might have to delay that retirement after all …”
Rugby’s leading unions have access to international selection as trump cards in their negotiating hands. From what little we know, it is hard to envisage a sustainable commercial model for a franchise competition rotating through countries outside the sport’s traditional heartlands.
However deep the pockets of possible backers, the prospect of sparsely attended stadia should be enough to dissuade rising stars from turning their backs on conventional career paths.
While rugby would still be advised against complacency, other sports are more vulnerable to disrupters. The Indian Premier League has shown the way in cricket; LIV in golf.
The first built on a seemingly insatiable appetite for content from an enormous fanbase, and a complicit governing body; the second on its grotesquely wealthy backer’s ability to pick off sole traders in a quintessentially individual sport.
Cricket may prove an outlier in team sports given the challenges in corralling squads and establishing supporter bases. Individual pursuits are a different matter, especially where current athlete rewards do not match up to either their name-recognition or their sense of self-worth.
Michael Johnson’s new Grand Slam Track circuit in athletics could prove a test case for many sports for individuals, especially the Olympic ones in which four-yearly spikes in public interest are not sufficient to provide glamorous lifestyles for the vast majority of participants.
Johnson has announced four three-day meets between April and June next year. The first is in Jamaica, the other three in major US cities. The established Diamond League series overseen by World Athletics runs from April to August.
The second Grand Slam Track meet in Miami, USA coincides with the second Diamond League event in Suzhou, China. With prize pots greater on the Grand Slam circuit, it’s safe to assume which of the two meets the world’s best track athletes will want to run in.
It remains to be seen whether Grand Slam Track can demonstrate enough novelty to generate the new audience that athletics is crying out for outside the Olympics and World Championships. Netflix’s Sprint (second series just out) will certainly be helping to bubble up interest in the personalities that Johnson is signing.
Prompted by Paul v Tyson, broadcasters might ask themselves, though, whether “crossover” sprinters might generate an instantly bigger audience than conventional athletes. Established stars of various sports taking to the track to test their prowess, then atop bikes, into boats and onto the gym.
After all, it’s been done before in homespun fashion with great success. Kevin Keegan coming off his bike in Superstars anyone? Time for a reboot with multimillion dollar backing. I’d enjoy watching Joe Marler hurdling, that’s for sure.
Coe’s Trump card
The second Trump presidency will likely have little direct impact on sport – apart from Potus claiming credit for brokering the inevitable end to golf’s civil war. Indirect impacts may be more subtle, but no less significant.
Outgoing International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach is reportedly no fan of Donald Trump. A chance, then, for his organisation to let love bloom ahead of LA 2028.
Seb Coe is one of seven candidates in January’s election. His manifesto has two central pillars: to protect the integrity of female sport and – extending the decision he has taken for athletics – to pay prize money to all Olympic medallists. Both very Trumpian policies.
Coe’s prize money initiative will distinguish him from the other six contenders, could prove a game changer and, with Trump in power, may well reflect the zeitgeist.
President Trump will want LA to be a massive triumph. The IOC has very substantial financial reserves, but prize money for all medallists would still need funding – perhaps $100m for a Summer Olympics.
This is a sponsorship opportunity ripe for a major US corporation to plaster its name over. Perhaps the new US president could open a few doors for the next IOC president: a major social media platform, EV manufacturer or space exploration business perhaps?
I want to break free
Football’s international breaks are a boon for non-league football. Last weekend there were 1,259 in the crowd at the Dripping Pan to see Lewes FC humbled 2-0 by lower division AFC Totton in the FA Trophy. That’s 49 per cent more than the club’s average home gate this season.
Charlie Austin – yes, the Charlie Austin – scored one and made the other. No need for Superstars for him just yet, even at 35 years old.
In the lea of the sweeping South Downs, one agricultural Lewes fan expressed his frustration as yet another attack broke down: “Wake up number 10, you dozy heifer!”
Next up for Totton in the Trophy? A trip to Biggleswade Town on 7 December.
Ed Warner is chair of GB Wheelchair Rugby and writes his sport column at sportinc.substack.com