A rundown of how athletes get paid

If you’re a sports fan who follows top athletes on social media, you probably see a whole lot of mansions and luxury cars. Professional athletes from major organizations like the NBA, MLB, and NFL earn salaries that sometimes soar into the triple-digit millions. But what about the lesser-known competitors who make their living playing sports? How do those athletes get paid?

Your questions probably don’t stop there. There aren’t many 50-somethings on the starting lineup – how do athletes make money after they retire? And what about Olympic athletes – do they have jobs? What type of money do minor-leaguers and college athletes earn?

Sports salaries are complex, but we’ll break down the different sources of income for athletes. And if you’re an athlete yourself, we’ve got some tips you can use to boost your career.

Getting paid to play

If you’re not making millions playing for a professional sports team, you may find it challenging to stay in the game financially. Unfortunately, passion doesn’t pay the bills, and several external factors can limit how much an athlete earns. Aside from honing your on-field talents, you may have to become a savvy businessperson. Here’s how athletes generally get paid:

Salaries

Massive salaries make the news, but they’re the exception, not the rule. A player’s pay depends largely on performance, and it’s possible not to get paid if an athlete sustains an injury or spends the season on the bench. Contracts define a player’s salary expectations and terms, so if you’re about to sign on with a sports organization, read everything (including the fine print) to understand how much you stand to earn. Find out if your earnings depend on your team or individual performance or external factors like ticket sales. Learn if there’s a payday cap.

If you’re still in school, you may be wondering how much college athletes get paid. College athletes don’t earn salaries, but they can monetize their names, images, and likenesses (NIL), meaning they’re free to partner with brands and earn whatever these companies offer as compensation. You can learn more about this in the next point on sponsorships.

Sponsorship deals & endorsements

Diversifying your income is a smart move no matter how much you make shooting hoops or scoring goals, so consider supplementing your income with sponsorships. In these deals, brands partner with athletes who promote their company for compensation. There are many different models, but athletes may rep a product in a commercial, pitch an item to their social media followers or wear a jersey with a company logo in public. Many people look up to athletes, so a star player’s approval goes a long way with customers.

Performance

An athlete’s salary may come with performance clauses, and their ability to hustle on social media could determine how much they take home in advertising income. But another source of cash is a performance award, like a gold medal from the Olympics. So how much do Olympic athletes get paid? It depends – in Beijing, Olympians who won the gold for the U.S. took home just shy of $40,000, but Singapore paid its gold medalists nearly 20 times more.

Crowdfunding

Player salaries make up just a fraction of the costs associated with running a team. Sporting organizations have many other operational costs, such as uniforms, coaching, training space, equipment, and transportation. They look to generous donors for a helping hand. Nowadays, a lot of fundraising happens online, so some sports teams run crowdfunding campaigns on donation websites to reach specific goals (like a season’s worth of gas for the team tour bus).

What factors affect a player’s earnings?

Even a sports player with a sky-high salary can take a pay hit. Here are a few factors that determine the size of athletes’ paychecks:

• Whether they can play or are benched because of an injury or reduced performance
• Poor conduct resulting in penalties
• Sign-on bonuses
• Player popularity (in the stadium and on social media)

How to boost your income on social media

You’ve seen everyone from your teammate to famous basketball players repping a brand on social media. Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and other popular platforms have incredible reach and offer agile options for sponsored and affiliate content, making them a core part of 21st-century marketing. Big stars may still represent brands on billboards and in magazine ads, but social media marketing is where it’s at.

If you’re an athlete, you can boost your image and make some cash by:

• Becoming an influencer: Approach brands with a customer base that overlaps with your fan base to see if they’re interested in offering you a cut of profits or a fixed-rate deal for pitching their product to your audience. Just make sure the product you’re representing is one you believe in so fans will continue to trust your recommendations.
• Participating in affiliate marketing: Anyone with decent social media traffic can make a good amount of money from affiliate marketing by hosting brand content in exchange for payment. Depending on the agreement you set up, you’ll earn based on clicks, conversions, or sales. The more traffic your site sees, the more opportunity for earnings, so drive consumers to your webpage by linking to it in your social media bios.
• Endorsing a product: Sponsorship and endorsement may sound like the same thing, but they’re different. In sponsorship, a brand pays you to pitch a product. In an endorsement, you become the face of a brand. Try reaching out to brands you believe in to inquire about endorsement opportunities. Brands may even come to you for endorsements if you’re already a big name. If you have a smaller, more localized following, start with brands based in your area.