this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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It makes sense. Throwing a 5kg ball or swimming real fast on your back isn't exactly of value to anyone.
If athletes want more money and are participants in sports that have low interest, they have to first ask where the hell they think that money will come from. I have a friend that competes in long jump on an international level and is also an athletics ambassador. There's no viewership, merchandise, public hype, etc. so there's no income. Dude just holds a good engineering job. Similarly one in triathlon, which he does have some decent prize money and sponsorship as there is much more interest and viewership, but he still works a full-time job and he has to be absolute top of the field to get any reward.
You can't make the public watch things they don't want to. And no one wants to pay for something they're not interested in or want.
It's frustrating that this was never mentioned in the article. It was never covered why income is what it is.
This article is reporting on a survey run by the the so-called Australian Sports Foundation. From their own financial report:
So it's an unsurprising conclusion. If there was a similar foundation, also pulling in $47 million per annum, for a similar activity people do out of passion rather than necessity such as... I dunno... "Australian Spoon Tapping Foundation"? That foundation's CEO would probably be more than happy to give a soundbite for the media. But elite spoon tappers don't have a foundation nor do they really identify as spoon tappers.
There is an interesting story here, though. I think some people assume that elite athletes equals mega dollars. But that is not the case. An interesting article that actually informs and entertains the public could:
Instead what we've got here is a headline implicitly stirring up feelings of injustice, some comments from some CEO, some nothing numbers with no context, and finally an actual comment from an actual athlete (right at the bottom of the article?!).